Thanks to the support of the European Commission, FESAT has acquired a
visibility and a strong presence in the European plan for the
prevention of drug problems, offering exchanges between professionals,
training sessions, thematic working groups dealing with specific
problems, communication materials.
The expansion of the FESAT network is part of the development of
prevention of drug problems on a European level. It is important to
recognise the place and the fundamental role of drug helplines in the
field of drugs and drug policy, in demand reduction, in harm reduction,
in prevention and in information.
The current FESAT action programme aims:
- To stimulate and develop co-operation between drug helplines in the
member states and to enlarge the network by the addition of drug
helpline services from the countries of central and eastern Europe, and
from all applicant countries.
- To continue the organisation of
an exchange of experience, the definition of methodological guidelines
and the search for solutions to common problems.
- To improve the quality of the information, help and prevention service offered to the public on drug questions;
- To
continue to organise offer training and exchange sessions to workers in
drug helplines on: common themes met by the services, such as working
with young people, new types of use, "new" synthetic drugs, evaluation
and collection of data, new technologies; themes of particular interest
to certain types of helplines, such as the needs of particular
populations, using paid or volunteer staff and others.
- To ensure that adequate information is circulated to the different publics involved, by using appropriate communication tools;
- To
improve the understanding of the phenomenon of drugs and drug abuse by
making the information collected by drug helplines, as a first line
source of help, more readily available, in particular information about
new methods of drug use. This project will be developed in
collaboration with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug
Addiction, Lisbon, and other concerned organisations;
- To reinforce the actions of FESAT in the Member States, in developing the support given to drug helplines.
A participant at the Training Seminar for Junior Helpline workers wrote:
Thank you very much for this opportunity. It was important for me as a young counsellor to talk about my work - which I love – and to meet all of you.
The FESAT website has been funded by the
Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security of the European Commission.
The content of this website reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
