Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality organized the Workshop on Combating Substance Addiction in partnership with Beyoğlu Municipality to prevent addiction from threatening public health and to ensure a strong future.
The Workshop on Combating Substance Addiction was followed by professionals from psychology, sociology, medicine and education sciences, as well as many civil society organizations and local government officials. The workshop, which attracted approximately 200 participants, was held at the Haliç Water Sports Center in cooperation with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) and Beyoğlu Municipality.
“WE WILL OPEN OUR BEYOGLU SUDEM CENTER WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF OUR PRESIDENT EKREM İMAMOĞLU”
Beyoğlu Mayor İnan Güney, who stated that substance addiction has unfortunately spread like a pandemic, continued his words as follows; “Drug barons see our beautiful country as a market and our youth as a customer. It is not only our bodies that are poisoned, but also our social life, the future of our country and our tomorrows. Today, substance addiction is one of the most important national security issues in our country. We are constantly in the field and among people. We all see that substance use has continued to increase from the past to the present and that many homes have been burned. Substance is not only the problem of addicts and their families, but the problem of the entire society. We look at this issue not individually but socially. We think that the solution to this social issue should also be a social mobilization. Social mobilization against substance has become a national duty and a national issue. In our work before the election, we promised the families who frequently came to us and whispered to us to save their children. Very soon, our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğluWe will be opening our Beyoğlu SUDEM Center with the participation of . We will be taking an important step in the fight against substance addiction in Beyoğlu.”
“ISTANBUL NEEDS 39 CENTERS, AT LEAST ONE IN EACH DISTRICT”
In the opening speech of the workshop, IMM Health Affairs Department Head Dr. Faculty Member Önder Yüksel Eryiğit stated that the basic mission of local governments is to protect, prevent and rehabilitate public health and made the following statements: We established the IMM Health Affairs Department Addiction Combat and Rehabilitation Branch Directorate in 2020 due to necessity. In 2022, we opened the first unit of our Addiction Combat Branch Directorate in Bağcılar district. As of today, we are carrying out our fight against addiction through a total of 7 Social Adaptation Support Centers (SUDEM), the last center being Beyoğlu. In the 2024-2029 Strategic Plans, we had foreseen the number of addiction combat or SUDEM Centers as 15. We visited our district mayors after the elections. As the IMM Health Affairs Department, we carried out these visits with the message that we are ready with all our resources for whatever is necessary for the fight against addiction. The primary service requested from us by the district municipalities in these visits was about combating addiction. This is a very terrifying reality… When you look at it from this perspective, not 15 branches but a minimum of 39 addiction prevention and rehabilitation service units need to be opened in Istanbul. In order to avoid this extremely frightening outcome, we are collaborating with our district municipalities, organizing these workshops, and trying to take precautions with new methods and approaches.
“IT IS ALL OF OUR DUTY TO HELP INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE RECEIVED PURIFICATION TREATMENTS TO KEEP THEM ALIVE”
Önder Yüksel Eryiğit, who stated that local governments do not have inpatient treatment units due to legislation, said; “In this context, our main purpose in SUDEMs is based on taking precautions, rehabilitating, and creating social awareness.” Eryiğit, who stated that “We ensure the rehabilitation of people who have undergone purification treatments and have been treated in hospitals, in other words, their attachment to social life,” continued his speech as follows: “In this respect, the main part of the struggle is for the individual not to return to substance abuse after hospital treatments are over; because when they start again, a more destructive process is encountered. We should all be part of the struggle, we should all know that we are links in this chain of struggle. In this sense, I am sure that this meeting we held today will serve this purpose and produce very important outputs.”
THE PANEL HELD AS PART OF THE WORKSHOP PROVIDED ACADEMIC GUIDANCE
Following the protocol speeches, a panel was held with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ünübol, Prof. Dr. Cemal Onur Noyan, Prof. Dr. İsmail Barış and IMM Social Adaptation Support Center (SUDEM) Director Mustafa Erata as speakers. In the panel, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başak Ünübol made a presentation titled “What is Addiction, Substance Addiction and the Addiction Process”; Prof. Dr. Cemal Onur Noyan made a presentation titled “Psychosocial and Medical Support in Substance Addiction”; Prof. Dr. İsmail Barış made a presentation titled “Preventive Activities in Substance Addiction”; IMM SUDEM Director Mustafa Erata made a presentation titled “Fight against Addiction, Rehabilitation and SUDEM Introduction”.
4-SESSION WORKSHOP ADDICTION ADDRESSED A WIDE SPECTRUM
The afternoon program of the Substance Addiction Workshop included four separate sessions. The first session addressed the “Current Situation and Operations in the Fight Against Substance Addiction”, the second session addressed “Neighborhood-Based Solution Proposals in the Fight Against Substance Addiction”, the third session addressed “Protective and Preventive Activities in the Family and Neighborhood”, and the fourth session addressed the “Role of Communication and Media”.
AROUND 50 SUGGESTIONS AND ROADMAPS
Nearly 50 solutions and suggestions were presented at the conclusion of the workshop. Some of the most notable solution suggestions were as follows: Marriage education: determining whether the couples who are going to get married have a history of addiction, parent-child raising awareness training, ensuring that kindergarten students are provided addiction education by game-style trainers, raising awareness of NGOs on addiction and including them in the process, including muhtars in the process of reaching out to substance users, providing addiction awareness training by experts periodically during religious events where people gather (Friday prayers, tarawih, kandil programs, etc.), establishing treatment units that will provide qualified outpatient and inpatient medical treatment, increasing the frequency of psycho-education and awareness studies for families, local governments addressing the deficiency in this regard (employment of consultants or permanent psychiatrists), providing contact persons in the relevant health institution (social worker, psychologist, psychiatric nurse), providing awareness training on substance/alcohol addiction to personnel and citizens in Neighborhood Mansions, providing training to guidance counselors in schools, initiating a campaign for celebrities to quit addictive substances in commercial shoots, providing class-by-class education with artificial intelligence in high schools, and comprehensive solution suggestions were presented.
