Women's club hosts FGD on caring for drug abusers

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu Federation of Women’s Club Inc. (CFWC) organized a focused group discussion on drug dependency and the proper handling of drug abusers/dependents held yesterday at the Sarrosa International Hotel along F. Cabahug Street in Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City.

The session was attended by therapists, human resource personnel and counselors who are caring for or treating illegal drugs abusers and drug dependents.

The discussion focused on the common issues regarding illegal substance use, the concerns of drug dependents/abusers after undergoing rehabilitation, the problems encountered by therapists and counselors in handling these drug abusers/dependents and the discussion of the drug dependency programs in each of their areas.

“It is more on a focused group discussion rather than a forum. Duna ta'y mga focus questions and out of that, mao na ang amoang gi discuss all throughout na,” said Cynthia Alesna Barrit, the event organizer.

The forum also aimed to gather relevant data and information to be addressed to Liesel N. Aranyosi, M.A., a mental health professional, who also participated in the forum via Skype.

Barrit said that the focused group discussion will serve as an input for Aranyosi for her upcoming workshop in Cebu in November.

Aranyosi is a registered psychotherapist based in Canada and a member of Canadian Professional Counselors Association that facilitates and supervises mental health practitioners who wanted to become registered counselors.

“She eagerly and positively responded to our invitation and during the focused group discussion, we gather information on what are these intervention implemented in our areas and mga issues that we are facing in relation to this para sa upcoming workshop ni Ms. Aranyosi. It will really cater to our stakeholders lakip na sa mga grupo diri nga nagtabang sa atoang drug dependents,” Barrit said.

During the activity, the participants also shared their own experiences on the various approaches and methods they have implemented in handling drug dependents and discussed how these methods had helped drug surrenderers.

Participants also shared the various problems they are facing in handling drug dependents. They cite the lack of therapist and volunteers to assess and provide interventions to those surrenderers as one of the major problems.

They also expressed that they want to learn other methods from Aranyosi.

“The participants are so eager to learn what are these immediate intervention nga pwede nila ma-apply before nila i-undergo og rehabilitation program ang usa ka surrenderer. Kung unsa gyud ang mga in practice basic counseling sa Canada that has been proven successful and pwede ma-apply nila,” Barrit said.

“I shared my experiences and learnings to you because I want to help you, but the decision will always be with you if you want to use or apply this or maybe integrate with the knowledge and skills you already have,” Aranyosi responds via Skype.

Aranyosi is expected to be in Cebu on November 14-15 for a seminar workshop regarding mental healthcare for substance abusers.

Her workshop will focus on the enhancement of knowledge and skills of those mental health workers, mental healthcare stakeholders and those caring for or treating drug dependents.

The workshop also aims to provide information awareness so people most especially those working professionals in the industry can be made aware of the many factors that could lead to addictive behavior.

CFWC believes that it is important for the workers to fully understand what drug addiction is all about and implement interventions that are necessary in order to help the clients and drug dependents so they can easily cope with their environment, and hopefully change for their own betterment. (FREEMAN)