STAGE 5. Defining the action plan

What steps should be completed?

Step 1: Specify intervention actions

CHARACTERISTICS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WHEN DESIGNING STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE SOCIAL INCLUSION OF DRUG-DEPENDENT PEOPLE.

Social inclusion programmes must be contextualised and suited to the characteristics of the social situation, and work on the following levels:

• Individual: to improve drug-dependent people’s attitudes and abilities regarding their social inclusion.
• Microsocial: to create conditions in the programme beneficiaries’ close social environment that favour the social inclusion process.
• Macrosocial: to change the dominant social perceptions about drug dependence and people with exclusion problems, and involve the community in formulating programmes and actions to address them. The community is not a passive or neutral element in the process of social inclusion: the success or failure of the programme will largely depend on the dominant attitudes towards these phenomena.

Social inclusion is a process of gradual and successive approximations, although not always linear, in which drug-dependent individuals progress through various stages. The stages that each person passes through, the speed with which they progress on their journey, the objectives to achieve at each stage and the potential setbacks in the process will depend on the characteristics of the person and their micro- and macro-social context, as well as the set of resources that are employed to support the social inclusion process.

Social inclusion is an individualised process, which requires a prior study of each person’s needs, demands and resources to establish different strategies for each case. The process of social inclusion must provide for specific and measurable objectives, and strategies and activities that can ensure that these objectives and indicators are achieved so that their results can be evaluated. The drug-dependent person must take an active role in this process, as they are the protagonists of the change in their life’s course. Together with the professionals supporting the process, they must diagnose their situation, design a work programme to change it and evaluate their progress.

Inclusion activities should mainly be based on the use of generalist resources, and specific activities for drug addicts should be avoided where possible (interventions should not be segregating). Social inclusion programmes should also promote activities to meet their target population’s needs, in a parallel attempt to influence the factors that generate social exclusion.

Finally, not all drug-dependent people have social exclusion problems. In fact, there are a range of possibilities, from people who do not need specific interventions in this field, to others with serious difficulties who need extensive and continuous support. However, all drug-dependent people who are in treatment and who have significant difficulties with respect to social integration should be able to access programmes to support social inclusion.