Being an organisation which stresses on the overall health of the people from all section of the society, VHAM has taken serious concern over the rise of drug abuse in the capital, and its ramifications in diseases such as HIV/AIDS. In this connection, with support from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, through the Meghalaya AIDS Control Society, VHAM is providing clinical treatment to drug users who want to treat their addiction. As part of this project, VHAM is opening an exclusive clinic for women who are struggling with the disease of drug addiction. The clinic will be provided with a Doctor, a nurse and a Counsellor, besides the supporting staff and the Manager who will oversee the functioning of the clinic. The treatment is on OPD mode, the patients will not be staying in the clinic. Medicines will be provided along with counselling, their overall health will be assessed and managed to ensure they are taken care of. The patients that will be coming to the office daily to access this clinical care will be not more than 15, they will remain in the clinic for 20 -30 minutes and leave for their respective homes and place of work. They won’t be coming at the same time; hence there will not be any crowd in the office or its vicinity. While the idea may give a sense of insecurity to the community and to our neighbours, yet we want to emphasise here the need to address the problem of drug use head on, it is present in every community, family and workplace. The drug dependants who come to our clinic represent a very small section of the larger drug using population in the City, they are under treatment, and with a lot of support their presence in the community will be inconsequential.
Understanding the nature of work in connection with drug dependency, VHAM is committed in initiating a head on collaboration with the community where the Office is located, the collaboration will be in terms of addressing drug dependency amongst the people in the community, addressing the rapid drug peddling and trafficking that the entire State is facing at present. We have learnt from experience that the community is the backbone in efficiency on any intervention over the problem of drug use.