The National Council on Drug Abuse was invited to participate in the Pilot Training of Trainers: Training and Certification Programme for Drug and Violence Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation. The training was held at Miami Dadeland Hotel, Miami Florida, February 4 – 8, 2013.
The programme is referred to as PROCCER – a Spanish acronym for Training and Certification Programme for Drug and Violence Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation. This programme is funded by the Inter American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) and is in response to an assessment conducted in Central America that showed that a significant proportion of substance abuse treatment and prevention personnel were not formally trained in this area.
The Jamaican contingent of participants were Dr. Wendel Abel – (Head of Section Psychiatry UWHI and Chairman of the National Council on Drug Abuse), Dr. Winston De La Haye, (Consultant Psychiatrist), Dr. Lizabeth Cossman ( Consultant Psychiatrist), Dr. Geoffrey Walcott ( Consultant Psychiatrist ) Collette Browne (Treatment Manager (NCDA), Michael Tucker (Executive Director, Drug Abuse Secretariat) Barney Eledemire (Clinical Psychologist – ATSU), Paulette Spencer-Smith ( Head of Training –NCDA), Oneil Smith ( Regional Manager- NCDA ) Sislyn Malcolm ( Director of Field Services – NCDA) Clifton Morris ( Regional Manager – NCDA) , Janet Roberts- Bowen ( Regional Manager – NCDA) and Uki Atkinson ( Research Analyst – NCDA).
The region was further represented by delegates from Antigua, Trinidad, Grenada and Barbados.
The participants were divided between a prevention track and a treatment track. The objective of the training was to identify persons with expertise in the field and build their capacity to begin a process of certification of both programmes and personnel in their host countries. The ultimate goal of the training is to develop, implement and improve existing drug prevention and treatment programmes to make them more effective.
The certification process will train and evaluate substance abuse personnel in minimum quality standards for drug abuse prevention and treatment programmes. It will also provide a career path for personnel operating at different levels within each track. The training was broken down into several modules that can be delivered through self paced learning. Following the training, participants have the responsibility to implement a pilot training in country within 6 months of the training session.