QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista announced on Thursday the recruitment of psychiatrists in the rehabilitation of drug users who surrendered during the all-out war against illegal substances waged by President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a meeting of the QC Anti-Drug Abuse Advisory Council, the mayor said there is a need to hire psychiatrists to study the behavior and background of former drug addicts for rehabilitation.
Psychiatrists are qualified to assess both the mental and physical aspects of psychological problems of those who voluntarily gave themselves up so they could fully understand the complex relationship between emotional and other medical illnesses of these drug users.
He said council, chaired by Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, must not focus alone on how to encourage drug dependents to surrender, but should also study, quantify, analyze and evaluate every drug dependent’s problem and behavior.
“There should be a narrative evaluation of drug dependents’ situation so that we will know their mental state why they were hooked on drugs,” he added.
Once there is a narrative evaluation of each drug dependent’s case, a better understanding of their behavior could lead to formulation of specific intervention on case to case basis, he noted.
To date, the local government’s campaign for a drug-free city, including police Oplan Tokhang, has already netted 5,729 surrenderees from 6,202 houses visited during the past few weeks.
Of the number, 5,268 are drug users and 461 are drug pushers.
QCADAAC revealed a total of over 300 city government employees tested positive on drugs, including 172 barangay public safety officers from different barangays.