“The Impact of New Normal Era on Drug Addiction: What needs to be prepared?”

“The Impact of New Normal Era on Drug Addiction: What needs to be prepared?”

Contributor: Anzany Tania Dwi Putri, Oral Medicine Specialist, Indonesian National Narcotics Board
Rehabilitation Centre

The emergence of COVID-19 since December 2019 has dramatically created a huge global crisis that severely hits many areas related to human’s daily lives. Several adjustments on how to ‘live along’ with this virus during this time, called ‘new normal era’, are urgently needed, including for people under drug addiction, to avoid its exposure. In order to commemorate International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 2020, Indonesian National Narcotics Board Rehabilitation Centre, Lido, held a 2-day Webinar Series, entitled “Living100% in the New Normal Era”, to equip people with substance use disorder to encounter their lives with the new normal era.

On day 1, the webinar discussed “New Normal Era in Global Perspective”, presented by Dr. Monica Ruth Nirmala, MPH., a global health expert from Harvard University. Dr. Monica told that there were five basic principals that currently required to do in order to reduce Covid-19 exposure, including “more distance”, “more hygienic”, “fewer people”, "shorter time”, and “more open-space”. In the following session, there was also a sharing section with the colleagues living in other countries, such as United States (Freida Siregar and Mahsyur Hilmy), United Kingdom (Adila Falahyati), Australia (Annisa R Beta), and Sweden (Resthie Rachmanta), about the design of the new normal era in their countries and how this design impacted their lives as local people.

On day 2, in the morning section, we talked more specifically about “Addiction and Covid-19”, presented by Dr. Esther M.L. Sinsuw, a psychiatrist from Bhayangkara Hospital, and “Addiction Recovery and Telemedicine in The New Normal Era”, by Dr. Eva Suryani, from Atma Jaya Catholic Indonesia University.    In this section, the participants learned about the vulnerability of people with substance use disorder to get infected by Covid-19 and challenges to maintain their recovery during this pandemic, as well as the benefits of telemedicine in helping them to stay recovered. After that, there was also a virtual talk show with Aldi Novrudi, a senior counselor from Indonesian National Narcotics Board, and David Tambunan, the person in recovery from addiction who was now working for Ultra Foundation, Jakarta, about their experiences how they lived their lives as recovering persons, particularly in this new normal era.

And, in the afternoon section, continued with a discussion about “The Readiness of Family in Facing the New Normal Era”, presented by Dr. Diah Setia Utami (Ad Hoc Coordinator of ISSUP Indonesia National Chapter), a psychiatrist from the Indonesian National Narcotics Board. Dr. Diah stated that support from family was significantly impactful in order to face this new era. A family itself is categorized “healthy” if it has fulfilled with the 8 functions in general, such as religious support, social culture support, love, protection, reproduction, education support, economic support, and environment building support. After that, this section talked about “Challenges in Works during Covid-19 Pandemic” started with a virtual sharing from a representative of a government employee (Dwi Nurmawaty, Indonesian National Narcotics Board) and private-sector/entrepreneurship (Adrian Desayer, the Founder of Narma Supermarkets). They shared a lot about how far this pandemic influenced their works and business and how they succeed to adapt to the new
era. Lastly, it was closed by a presentation about “Tips and Tricks How to Face the Work Challenges” by Vallendiah, a clinical psychologist from the Indonesian National Narcotics Board.

By participating in this webinar, the Indonesian National Narcotics Board Rehabilitation Center, Lido expects that all participants can be fully equipped with what needs to be prepared to adjust with this New Normal Era in order to live 100% aware, healthy, productive, and happy since as WHO stated a few days ago, anyone can contract Covid-19, regardless of race, gender, age, or other personal backgrounds.

Stay Healthy and Stay Away from Drugs!