LEAHN Co-ordinator Greg Denham traveled to Bangkok expand the LEAH Network and raise awareness of the important role police have in HIV prevention.
Between the 12th-15th of March, Greg met with LEAHN’s Country Focal Point for Thailand, Police Lieutenant Colonel (Tong) Krisanaphong Poothakool, Royal Thai Police.
Greg delivered a speech at a seminar on ‘Crimes and the ASEAN community’ held at Rangsit University. The event was hosted jointly by the College of Government and Public Governance, Criminology and Justice Administration, Rangsit University: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: PSI Thailand Foundation and Royal Thai Police Cadet Academy. The event was aimed primarily at dealing with transnational crime among the ASEAN community and Criminal Justice Reform in Thailand. Law enforcement officials, policy makers and experts on criminology and criminal justice administration were invited.
LEAHN Co-ordinator Greg Denham (centre)
The conference in Bangkok also provided an opportunity for Greg to meet with representatives from a number of agencies and discuss issues relating to policing and harm reduction in Thailand. In particular, it was noted that some Thai police were not being supportive of drop-in centres providing harm reduction services for drug users and were unprofessional in their conduct with drop-in centre staff. LEAHN committed to trying to address these concerns and assist in facilitating greater support for harm reduction by police – work which has already commenced by PSI Thailand Foundation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Tong, LEAHN’s Country Focal Point will be reviewing a number of harm reduction curricula which will be translated into Thai and adopted by the Thai Police Academy. Plans were initiated to undertake a Training of Trainers (ToT) program of Academy staff using this material to mainstream harm reduction training for Thai police through formal training programs.
Further efforts to increase Thai police awareness of their role in harm reduction will be made through the availability and provision of international best practice harm reduction information, education and communication material, and examples of laws and policies supportive of harm reduction which have been translated into Thai for local police.
PSI Thailand Foundation representatives were committed to encouraging collaboration between police and harm reduction program staff at their 19 project sites across Thailand in order to improve service delivery for local clients. Police Lieutenant Colonel (Tong) Krisanaphong Poothakool will be working with PSI Thailand Foundation and LEAHN to support these initiatives.
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