USAID RenewHealth - Expanding Access to Community-Based Drug Rehabilitation in the Philippines

The Problem: There is limited awareness of the health impact of drug use and low access to and uptake of CBDR services due to fear and limited availability of information about treatment and recovery services.

Action: The Project will develop social and behavior change tools in support of CBDR as well as for secondary prevention, informal care, and self-help.

The Problem: Six major hurdles prevent clients from accessing essential evidence-based services:

• Weak governance of the CBDR system
• Lack of trained providers to apply localized evidence-based tools as a national standard for screening those who surrender
• Most of those who surrender are sent for unnecessary full drug dependency evaluation creating a bottleneck as there are not enough accredited doctors to provide assessments
• Absence of evidence-based and localized interventions for lower risk surrenders
• Low adoption and technical capacity to provide evidence-based CBDR interventions
• Lack of understanding and capacity at the local level to manage holistic CBDR programs and wrap-around services

Action: Enhance the quality of community-based treatment and services as well as the capacity of local health governance to deliver CBDR services.

The Problem: The Philippines does not have a robust CBDR system and prioritizes a punitive response to drugs, concentrating resources in the criminal justice system resulting in congested courts and prisons.

Action: Address punitive drug laws and policies, lack of resources for mental health, lack of infrastructure and governance gaps, and lack of financial support for CBDR services. Three areas of work support this objective: policy dialogue and development, institutional strengthening, and improving sustainability and self-reliance for CBDR programs.