De-addiction centres in Kangra's border areas lack trained staff

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, April 17

Most drug de-addiction centres mushrooming in the border areas lack trained staff.

During a visit by this correspondent, it was witnessed that a number of private centres had come up in the district but they neither had proper infrastructure, nor trained staff.

Ninety per cent of the centres have licences for “rehabilitation centres” only, not for “substance used drug treatment centres”, still they are admitting drug addicts in violation of rules. Even the centres, managed by the state Red Cross Society, are no better.

Though the state government has constituted the Himachal Pradesh State Mental Authority in 2017 to deal with menace and govern such centres, it has failed to deliver. Many centres are admitting the patients without the recommendations of the Mental Health Care Board, which is mandatory.

These centres are not managed by trained people. It is learnt that a group of people register a society and then set up a centre but they never employ trained people and specialists like counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists.

The state authorities also have no check on the fee being charged. Dr Gurdarshan Gupta, CMO, Kangra, says the government has constituted a committee comprising the SDM, a DSP, and a psychiatrist, headed by him, to inspect such centres. The committee regularly visits these centres and shortcomings are pointed out to its owners and action is also taken.