Accreditation standards for drop-in centres in Bosnia and Herzegovina

With the passing of the National Action Plan for the fight against illicit drugs 2009-2013, and the adoption of the Law on the Prevention and Suppression of Drug Abuse in BiH "Official Gazzete of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2006.“, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina clearly demonstrated its commitment to this field. One course of action and commitment of the state in this direction is the opening of drop in centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Drop in centers purpose is to provide it clients a comfortable place for rest, sleep and any other needs (personal hygiene, laundry, etc.). At the center, a responsible person (drop in the operator) is always present and available for the clients. Among other things, once or twice a week, nurse, social worker and lawyer come to the drop in center to advise the clients of the center. Clents of the Center are not only people who inject drugs, but also sex workers and former prisoners. Drop in centers organize field work (outreach) which aims to reach the target groups and to establish contact with addicts who, on their own, do not have contact with any health or social institution. Outreach work acts in the immediate environment of addicts. Outreach workers are not only college-educated people, but also people with experience in drug use that have many years of stable abstinence.

Accreditation Standards for drop in centers were created as part of the "Package of harm reduction services in Bosnia and Herzegovina" related to the UN Global Fund for HIV / AIDS, TB & Malaria project implementation. These standards rely on policies and programs and good practices to reduce the social, health and economic consequences of (mis) use of legal and illegal psychoactive substances, without them irrefutably reducing injection drug use. Harm reduction as a program has been recognized by the World Health Organization, UNODC and the UNAIDS.

In addition to the national literature used in the preparation of these standards, international references, downloaded from the official site of EMCDDA* (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction), were used as well. The EMCDDA has existed since the 1993., and is one of the EU's decentralized agencies with headquarters in Lisbon. It gives EU member states a factual overview of the events associated with psychoactive substance abuse and offers topics for discussion.

The goal is to, throuh accreditation standards and accreditation of drop in centers, achieve for all centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina to operate and provide services to their customers at the same, guaranteed level of quality, which primarily refers to the safety of the clients and personnel at drop in centers.

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