Under the supervision of the Interministerial Committee on Drug Control and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, nearly 20 representatives of national programmes to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis and mental health, as well as representatives of various treatment centres, as well as people with drug use disorders, worked for three days to launch the development of integrated national guidelines for the treatment of drug use and other concurrent medical conditions. The guidelines are expected to become a key tool to ensure access to evidence-based, internationally standard treatment and care for people with drug-related disorders and concurrent mental and medical disorders. The overall structure resulting from this consultation will guide the next steps and will benefit from the support of the Technical Support Mechanism for the finalisation of the national integrated guidelines document.

Professor YEO Ténéna Jean Marie, Director of the National Mental Health Program and coordinator of this activity, stressed the need for an interdisciplinary approach to increase the effectiveness of coordination between health services for people with drug-related disorders and services to work on an integrated continuum of care.

There was a clear consensus among participants to work together at the national and community level on providing accessible health services to vulnerable populations such as people with drug-related disorders. The initiative to work together to develop integrated national guidelines has proven to be an opportunity for each program to improve access for this key population.