Work Group Reports on
Demand Reduction --
Summary of Overview,
Discussion, and
Recommendations
Special Populations
Facilitators:
- Dr. Ruth Sanchez-Way, USA
- Director, Division of State and Community Systems
Development, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention,
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- Dr. Nelly Salgado de Snyder, Mexico
- Researcher, Mexican Institute of Psychiatry,
Ministry of Health
Presenters:
- Dr. Juana Mora, USA
- Professor, Department of Chicana/o Studies, California State University-Northridge
- Ms. Patricia Reyes del Olmo, Mexico
- Technical Director, Center Against Addictions, "Ama la Vida" Foundation
Overview:
Based on her review of the U.S. literature, Dr. Mora established that several populations should be regarded as "special." Such populations, she explained, have been generally excluded from the literature, disconnected from services, and marginalized from society. They include vulnerable groups of women, migrants, individuals with co-morbidity, high school dropouts, indigenous populations, runaways, gays and lesbians, and the handicapped.
Ms. Reyes del Olmo pointed out that the Mexican literature identified the following groups as needing special attention: pregnant adolescents, incarcerated populations, indigenous populations, the homeless, elders, migrants, maquiladora workers, street children, women, and prostitutes.
She explained drug abuse prevention efforts for these special populations represent a complex spectrum of activities, because risk conditions for substance use are strengthened and more resistant, and the alternatives for specific treatment are increasingly more difficult to enact, as rehabilitation and social reinsertion strategies are viewed as being out of context.
Ms. Reyes del Olmo stated that Mexican research carried out from 1985 to date confirm that (a) it is necessary to allot greater resources for research and specific care of these populations, (b) these populations have expressed specific needs for efforts aimed at reducing risk and lowering the degree of harm caused by their consumption of toxic substances, and (c) it is necessary to develop strategies for the integral care of these populations based on the need to improve their quality of life within the context of their reality.
Both Dr. Mora and Ms. Reyes del Olmo stressed that the work done by both countries on special populations is of the utmost importance due to the consequences of substance use among these populations. When these people learn to use drugs on one side of the border, they will continue to do so at home.
