Innovating Care of Addictions in Low-Resource Settings
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
The entire range of addictions is increasingly being acknowledged as an area of public health concern. Substance use disorders and behavioral addictions are associated with a range of adverse health, lifestyle, social, and economic outcomes. Despite the availability of evidence-based interventions, low-resource settings are ridden with challenges of demand-side and supply-side barriers to effective health care, including care for addictions. There is a need for a well conceptualized and integrated response to the growing epidemic of a range of addictions, especially in low-resource settings. Some innovative approaches such as task-sharing and technology based care, which are highlighted as case studies in this chapter, have shown promise for use across low-resource and even high-resource settings. The future calls for strengthening of the evidence base for addictions care in low-resource settings, focus on the less-researched addictions, cross-setting implementation of existing solutions, and further evaluation and development of existing and alternative innovative approaches. These actions need to be supplemented by robust monitoring and evaluation systems, and a concerted focus from key actors in the health care sector.
Recommended Citation
Nadkarni, A., & Bhatia, U. Innovating care of addictions in low-resource settings. Innovations in Global Mental Health. 2020; 1-16. Available at: http://www.sangath.in/wpcontent/uploads/2020/01/Nadkarni-and-Bhatia-2019-addictions-innovations.pdf.
