INTEGRATED CARE: WHY? BUILDING A PLATFORM FOR INTEGRATED CARE

During the first regional harm reduction conference organised by Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) in Vilnius, Lithuania, WP7 organized a one day side event on integrated care (as part of the HA-REACT joint action). This international workshop was organized in order to improve collaboration on national and international level, to facilitate networking and knowledge transfer, to exchange experiences and good practices on integrating services for PWID.

The workshop was divided into three sections that provided:

  1. An overview of different approaches to integrating care for people who inject drugs and highlighting how these necessitate new roles, responsibilities, skills and competencies (Lithuania, United Kingdom).
  2. An overview of good practices of integrated care from the countries already implementing effective solutions (Spain, Portugal, Germany, United Kingdom (including Scotland)).
  3. Reflections on patients’ experiences, needs and expectations and how to involve patients and community in developing services for PWID (Estonia, Portugal).

The audience was from diverse background: representatives from State agencies (mostly from Estonia, Lithuania and Check Republic), NGOs engaged in harm reduction, healthcare workers from hospitals and prisons, people who use drugs and have used harm reduction services.

The discussion during the workshop led to the identification of some major challenges and key findings that are described below:

  • Drug use is a social problem and cannot be solved by health centred approaches only. Measures in harm reduction should be comprehensive. There is no single model that can solve all the problems.
  • Discussions underlined the importance of integrating feedback from practitioners (NGOs) and clients who have experience and expertise about what works and what doesn't. This means having a bottom-up approach, and understanding the clients’ need and expectations is essential for creating the right conditions, as well as the appropriate tools and methodology that could lead to exploiting the full potential of the harm reduction.
  • A number of successful drug policies and good practice already exist in some countries, such as Portugal and Check Republic but it is important that we learn from their limitations.
  • Developing new, non-hospital based technologies are helpful in improving vulnerable people's lives.
  • Peer-delivered services have a positive impact on clients’ health.