DOH to reopen Yolanda-hit drug rehab center in Leyte

TACLOBAN CITY, Sept. 6 (PNA) -– The Department of Health (DOH) will reopen on Thursday the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (TRC) in Dulag, Leyte, the region’s only state-run facility to aid drug dependents.

Teresita Cajano, chief of the DOH-TRC Eastern Visayas, said the center can initially accommodate 50 illegal drug users until early next year.

“By January, all the buildings will be used. Our full capacity is only 100, but if DOH will be lenient with the rules, we can have more than a hundred patients,” Cajano said.

Key DOH officials led by Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial are expected to grace the reopening.

The DOH-TRC just completed the PHP30-million reconstruction activity of its compound damaged by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

The center has only 41 staffs that provide treatment and rehabilitation services to drug dependents in the region’s six provinces. The center’s regular budget for its entire operation this year is only PHP6 million.

In the past few months, the DOH-TRC is only limited to carrying out its outpatient program through satellite offices in Tacloban City, Ormoc City, Maasin City and Catbalogan City.

As of this week, the police reported that there are about 20,000 self-confessed drug pushers and users who have yielded voluntarily at police stations in Eastern Visayas.

To facilitate the recovery of thousands of drug dependents, the DOH-TRC has embarked on a massive training of local health workers to implement the community-based rehabilitation approach.

Recently, the center has completed the training of 150 local government workers. This is on top of the 300 DOH-deployed nurses trained for the same purpose. (PNA)
LAP/SARWELL Q. MENIANO