The government approved the procedure for the rehabilitation of drug addicted patients

On September 1, 2023, a new order of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor on the procedure for drug addicts to undergo medical and social rehabilitation will come into force. On May 10, the document was registered by the Russian Ministry of Justice. Its development was required by the law on improving the mechanism for the rehabilitation of drug addicts, which Vladimir Putin signed in 2022.

According to the new procedure, drug addicts will be referred for medical rehabilitation by a psychiatrist-narcologist immediately after completion of treatment if there are medical indications. In this case, informed voluntary consent to medical intervention of the patient himself is required. In the case of minors with drug addiction, the permission of one of the parents or other legal representative. Medical rehabilitation should be carried out in medical organizations licensed to provide “psychiatry-narcology” services. There, drug-addicted patients will have to be encouraged “to undergo (complete) medical rehabilitation”, as well as to be given a referral to undergo social rehabilitation.

This type of assistance will be provided in a semi-stationary social service organization and on the basis of specialized non-profit organizations, but only if the necessary material and technical base and sufficiency of personnel are available. A psychologist and an instructor in physical therapy, a legal consultant and a social pedagogue must be on the staff of a social institution. The document states that such an organization should provide a library, an exercise therapy room, as well as a “leisure complex for watching thematic films and TV shows.”

Ivan Tyazhlov