Recently, PSI Thailand released three new reports detailing the effectiveness of five years of program implementation delivering comprehensive and innovative HIV harm reduction services for injecting drug users in Thailand. PSI hopes that other international and local agencies operating in Thailand and other parts of the world can benefit from the lessons learned and scalable success.
The first report highlights the innovations, best practices and lessons learned from the Comprehensive HIV Prevention Among Most-At-Risk Populations by Promoting Integrated Outreach and Networking with Injecting Drug Users (CHAMPION-IDU) project.
From July 2009 to December 2014 the CHAMPION-IDU project operated as a critical component of Thailand’s national response to HIV among people who inject drugs. Prepared by PSI Thailand, this report was created to document innovations, best practices and lessons learned during the implementation of the project. Furthermore, the report was designed so that it can be used by local and international agencies engaged in ensuring the continuity of HIV prevention services to people who inject drugs beyond CHAMPION-IDU.
Download CHAMPION-IDU: Innovations, Best Practices and Lessons Learned.
The second report presents the outcomes of PSI Thailand’s methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) and the best practices in providing a community-level MMT model:
In Santikhiri, Thailand, access to health care services is a challenge. Transportation to the village is poor, different languages are spoken and the socio-economic status of the villagers is below the national average. These factors, coupled with the lack of access to health care services, has caused many to turn to illicit drugs for alleviation of pains and illnesses and, as a result, has cause many people in the community to become drug dependent.
In October 2012, the methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) model was implemented to address the high usage of opioids in the village. Methadone is a chemically synthetic substance which mimics the action of heroin and is used to treat opioid dependence in the form of detoxification and long-term maintenance.
Evidence demonstrates that maintenance-oriented interventions yield better results than detoxification in terms of sustainably reducing illicit drug use and in terms of HIV prevention.
The third report highlights the successes and challenges to adding naloxone, a drug that blocks opioid reception in the brain, to an existing treatment protocol:
Of the 40,000 people who inject drugs in Thailand, it is estimated that between 25-40 percent are HIV positive. In 2009, the CHAMPION-IDU project launched to address the high rate of HIV among people who inject drugs. The Servicing Communities with Opioid Overdose Prevention (SCOOP) project was integrated into CHAMPION-IDU in 2013 as an additional opioid overdose prevention and management component. The program uses naloxone, an opioid antagonist that is very effective in reversing opioid drug overdoses. This report summarized the implementation of the SCOOP project and provides detailed information about overdose prevention and management with naloxone.
Download Servicing Communities with Opioid Overdose Prevention: Lessons Learned from Thailand.
