On 10th July 2020 in Jakarta, the National Guideline for Drug Dependence Treatment during COVID-19 pandemic was officially launched together with His Excellency Mr. Juliari P. Batubara, Minister of Social Affairs, His Excellency Mr. Heru Winarko, Chief of National Narcotics Board, and Mr. Collie Brown, UNODC Country Manager for Indonesia. At the beginning of launch event, the guideline was introduced through a web seminar with attendance of over 260 participants from various agencies. Then, continued with the official launch ceremony, the guideline was signed by the Minister of Social Affairs...

UNODC Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Section (PTRS), in collaboration with the WHO, International Experts from Australia and Italy, the Colombo Plan, UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (ROSEAP) and field offices in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam), organized UNODC web seminar entitled “Drug Dependence Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation Support for People, Families, and Communities affected by Drug Use Disorders in the COVID19 Crisis in Southeast Asia” on 12 June 2020. The webinar was organized building on UNODC’s...

Following the successful feasibility study in Indonesia on family therapy for youths with drug use disorders, Vietnam is the second country that rolls out a similar study as a way to offer more evidence-based, effective treatment alternative for drug use disorders.

The study was smoothly kicked start with a training for treatment practitioners who later provide support to youths and families with drug use disorders.  Unfortunately, when the research team started with the recruitment of patients and their families, they met with a big hurdle: the Covid 19 pandemic was seriously effecting...

The Drug Advisory Programme (DAP) of the Colombo Plan in collaboration with the National Narcotics Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BNN) has successfully conducted the first online echo training for the CHILD curriculum on Course 1: Interventions for Children with Substance Use Disorders in Indonesia. This initiative is carried out to ensure that international treatment capacity building continued uninterrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

The first course of the CHILD curriculum addresses the need for treatment professionals to alter intervention techniques to accommodate the...

Since the beginning of June 2020, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) together with the Indonesian Association of Addiction Counsellors (Ikatan Konselor Adiksi Indonesia - IKAI) has been remotely discussing the development of remote training on Universal Treatment Curriculum (UTC). This initiative is based on the high demand from practitioners to continue with capacity building initiatives to receive an official national certification for addiction counsellors, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since March 2020, all conventional/face to face trainings have been suspended due...

Since the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in Indonesia and officially announced by the President of the Republic of Indonesia H.E. Joko Widodo on March 2nd, 2020 and followed by the declaration from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11th, 2020 that the outbreak of COVID-19 is a pandemic, new cases has been growing between approximately 250 to 350 cases daily[1] in Indonesia.

Even though for most people with normal immune systems, COVID-19 may not bring severe impact as the world mortality case is still between 7% to 8%[2], but for people with drug use disorders especially...