The Philippine experience on the ‘basic training course for rehabilitation workers on the assessment and management of drug dependence’, 2013–2016

Abstract

Rehabilitation for persons who use drugs in the Philippines is premised on a multidisciplinary team approach to treatment, where delivery of services is collaboratively undertaken by physicians and rehabilitation practitioners. In 2013, a government-academe-civil society collaborative developed a customized training program for nurses, psychologists and social workers. This 10-day accreditation course covered modules on understanding drug dependence; assessment; management of drug abuse and dependence; and drug rehabilitation work.Participants also had the opportunity to handle cases through a practicum.Between 2013 and 2016, a total of eight training sessions were implemented, catering to 252 rehabilitation practitioners from almost all of the Philippines' administrative regions. A paired-samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference in the pre-test (24.58±4.08) and post-test scores (30.37±4.66) of participants to the training; t(152)=16.5949, p = <0.0001.

The Design and Outputs of the Pilot Implementation of the “Enhancing Skills in Screening and Assessment for Physicians and Rehabilitation Practitioners Level 2 Course”, Philippines, 2014

“…The purpose of this design was three-fold. First, it would prevent disruption of delivery of drug rehabilitation services in DATRCs as concerned staff will only be away for a limited number of days (in contrast, the basic course took place over two weeks 7,8 ). Second, the six-month mentoring and extended practicum would have allowed the training team to measure change in participant knowledge and skills beyond the short-term and outside the classroom setting (i.e., Level 3 in Kirkpatrick's model of learning evaluation 20 ).…”

“…Since 2009, a collaboration between the DDAPTP-DOH, College of Public Health of the University of the Philippines Manila (CPH-UPM), Philippine College of Addiction Medicine (PCAM), and the Group for Addiction Psychiatry of the Philippines (GAPP) has resulted to the development of two basic training courses -one for physicians and another for rehabilitation practitioners -and the training and accreditation of around 500 professionals working in DATRCs, hospitals, health centers, and other facilities across the Philippines. [6][7][8] In 2013, the four collaborating organizations embarked on the conceptualization of advanced and specialized training courses that aimed to expand the coverage of the existing basic training courses -which we described in detail elsewhere 7,8 -after careful consideration of feedback received by the DOH from practitioners in the field. Among others, the plan was to deploy advanced courses in screening and assessment (Level 2a) as well as treatment planning and management (Level 2b); a refresher course for physicians accredited by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) under the prior dangerous drugs statute; and an executive course for heads of drug rehabilitation facilities, and decision-makers and policymakers involved in drug rehabilitation.…”

“…Among others, the plan was to deploy advanced courses in screening and assessment (Level 2a) as well as treatment planning and management (Level 2b); a refresher course for physicians accredited by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) under the prior dangerous drugs statute; and an executive course for heads of drug rehabilitation facilities, and decision-makers and policymakers involved in drug rehabilitation. This paper describes the design and presents the outputs of the Level 2a course implemented in 2014 (the only advanced course implemented to date since the policy direction of DOH in 2016 focused on accrediting more physicians and rehabilitation practitioners under the basic training course), with the end in view of contributing to the published literature [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] on drug rehabilitation training. It is also our purpose to document the efforts of the DOH, together with CPH-UPM, PCAM, and GAPP, in addressing the country's drug problem through the development and implementation of a local capability-building initiative.…”