Drug Addiction Care and Follow-up Centreat the Brians 1 and 2 Penitentiary Centres (Barcelona)

This Centre is a resource of the Drug Addiction Care Network (XAD) funded by CATSALUT of the Department of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and directed and managed by Fundación Salud y Comunidad (FSC).

The centre began operating in 2005 and is the only centre of its kind within the prison setting. Its general objective is to offer, as far as possible, a portfolio of services similar to the care coverage that a CAS offers in other settings, thereby normalising treatment as an option for people deprived of their liberty. In this respect, its philosophy is built on the bio-psycho-social model, with particular attention to the harm reduction perspective.

The CAS’s intervention is cross-cutting and multidisciplinary, combining individual care with group work. Interventions are designed on the basis of the various demands (from both the institution and the participants) and the needs identified. To this end, the team is multidisciplinary and includes different professional profiles that provide psychiatric, health, psychological and social care. Collaboration with the various institutional bodies is another key factor in achieving the defined objectives.

Each year this service supports around 1,000 men and women with drug use problems, mainly involving heroin, cocaine, cannabis and alcohol. It has two units, one in each of the two adjoining penitentiary centres.

Among its programmes, those most in demand are the methadone treatment programme, the relapse prevention programme and the alcohol use care and prevention programme. The syringe exchange programme is essential in a setting such as a prison, as it is fundamental to preventing the transmission of HIV and HCV.

In addition, the CAS’s activity has an impact on the whole centre through various workshops and activities that promote health and risk prevention. The school of health agents and the introduction of a gender perspective (beyond the work with women at the Brians 1 Centre) are particularly noteworthy.