Congratulations to LEAHN Deputy Director, Pascal Tanguay, and our Country Focal Point, Pol. Lt. Col. Krisanaphong Poothakool, on your important roles in the CHAMPION-IDU project in Thailand.
(Introduction to new resources below by PSI)
For more than five years, the CHAMPION-IDU project was implemented by civil society organizations, with support from the Global Fund, to reduce HIV transmission and improve quality of life among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Thailand.
The project can now share three new reports describing salient successes, innovations, best practices and lessons learned generated under the project.
The first report – CHAMPION-IDU Innovations, Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Implementation of the National Response to HIV Among People Who Inject Drugs in Thailand 2009-2014 – details significant project components that have yielded important successes. The 13 innovations, best practices and lessons learned documented in the report focus on: a client-centered approach in project design and implementation; data production, management and dissemination; successful deployment of the national harm reduction policy; managing relationships and encounters with law enforcement; hiring and working with active and recovering PWID; education and health services for prisoners; peer-led methadone in a rural community; resource mobilization to stimulate demand for health services; partnerships; pharmacy-based voucher scheme; working with religious leaders; safety and security; and transitioning to local ownership.
The second report – Servicing Communities with Opioid Overdose Prevention (SCOOP) – Lessons Learned From Thailand – summarizes almost two years of experience in implementation of a community-based opioid overdose prevention and management project integrated across the 19 CHAMPION-IDU provinces in Thailand. The report is structured to provide external audiences interested in overdose prevention and management with naloxone a project blueprint to adapt and implement in their own localities. Though specific to Thailand, the report concludes on a set of lessons learned that could guide and support other overdose prevention projects.
The third report – Providing Community Level Methadone Maintenance Therapy: An Evidence-Based Report on Effective and Sustaining Treatment for Opioid Substance Users – details the innovative peer-led model developed and deployed by the CHAMPION-IDU team to deliver methadone to clients in a rural mountainous community. The report details the process by which the peer-led methadone delivery model was developed, approved and integrated to operate as an official component of the national response.
Finally, PSI would also like to take this opportunity to introduce the Ozone Foundation, the lead Thai civil society agency responsible for delivering health and social care services to people who use and inject drugs. The Ozone Foundation has played a critical role in ensuring continuity of services for Thai PWID since the suspension of CHAMPION-IDU activities in January 2015. For additional information about the Ozone Foundation, please contact K. Piyabutr Nakaphiew at piyabutr@ozonefoundation.org.
PSI would like to encourage you to widely disseminate the reports to your partners, members and colleagues, especially those working on issues related to people who use and inject drugs, harm reduction and public health. Electronic versions, in both Thai and English, are available online:
CHAMPION-IDU: Innovations, Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Implementation of the National Response to HIV Among People Who Inject Drugs in Thailand 2009-2014
English: www.psi.org/publication/champion-idu-innovations-best-practices-and-lessons-learned
Thai: www.psi.org/publication/champion-idu-innovations-best-practices-and-lessons-learned-2/
Servicing Communities with Opioid Overdose Prevention (SCOOP) – Lessons Learned From Thailand
English: www.psi.org/publication/servicing-communities-with-opioid-overdose-prevention-lessons-learned-from-thailand
Thai: https://www.scribd.com/doc/272818383/การให-บริการชุมชนด-วยการป-องกันการใช-ยาเกินขนาดจากสารอนุพันธ-ฝิ-น-Servicing-Communities-with-Opioid-Overdose-Prevention-SCOOP-การสรุปบทเรียนจากประเ
Community-based Methadone Maintenance Therapy: An Evidence-based Report on Effective Treatment for Opioid Substance Users in Santikhiri Village, Thailand
English: www.psi.org/publication/providing-community-level-methadone-maintenance-therapy-an-evidence-based-report-on-effective-and-sustaining-treatment-for-opioid-substance-users/
Thai: www.psi.org/publication/santikhiri-best-practice-report
Please feel free to contact the CHAMPION-IDU partners directly as well as the authors of the reports.
