Education: Teaching the young to say no
The five-year national action plan is based on prevention, intervention, damage limitation, therapy, social reintegration and mobilization. Since the average age at which children begin using addictive drugs in Greece is 15 years old, prevention will begin in the classroom. Teachers will receive training on drug issues, and in 2002 the subject of health will enter the primary and secondary school syllabus, with a specially prepared unit on addictive substances. School guards will continue to be employed. By the end of 2006, counseling centers will be in operation at institutes of tertiary education. The number of prevention centers will increase from 56 to 83 in 2002, and seven more throughout Greece by 2006. The centers will have programs aimed at parents, adolescents and pupils, sports teams, migrants, repatriated Greeks, army units, Gypsies and other groups. Local government, which provides 50 percent of the funding, will be actively involved in the centers. By 2004, the number of youth counseling centers should grow from the existing 16, with the addition of one per prefecture. Other services will attempt to target drug-users who have not reached the stage of addiction. The number of sudden, drug-related deaths in Greece is rising, so new services will be created to help drug-users in crisis (immediate access counseling centers, help and reception centers and crisis intervention centers). Among these initiatives is the formation of drug and alcohol user crisis centers in 19 psychiatric departments of major hospitals, and mobile first aid and crisis intervention units in collaboration with the National First Aid Center in cities. The action plan aims to upgrade the level of therapy by founding drug substitution centers in Piraeus, Athens and Thessaloniki and eventually in the provinces, youth units throughout Greece and day or residential therapy programs. Alcoholics Anonymous groups are to receive more support and their own centers, and there will be a detoxification program for people dependent on alcohol. Counseling centers will be introduced at the Halicarnassus and Iraklion prisons on Crete, and at Aghios Stefanos in Achaia, as well as rehabilitation centers for prisoners at Cassandra in Halkidiki and on Crete. As for the final stage, social reintegration, there will be 30 «second chance» schools at youth detoxification centers, while the State Manpower Organization will play an important part by funding programs and subsidies.
