ATLANTIS PROGRAM TO BE INTRODUCED IN ARMENIAN PRISONS

   YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS: An alcohol addict treatment
program, known as Atlantis, based on Minnesota Model, will be
introduced in Armenia’s penitentiary system. The purpose of this
program, in operation since 1996, is to co-operate and exchange
experience with specialists and organizations from Central and
Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the field of fighting addictions.
It provides a variety of forms of training specialists in the field
of prevention and treatment of alcohol and drug addiction, as well as
of educating families of the addicted.
   Justice minister David Harutunian said the program should be
started at prisons as they offer a set of “positive preconditions” to
properly organize the treatment, meaning addicts’ isolation and the
inaccessibility to strong alcoholic drinks.
   He was speaking at a seminar in Yerevan organized by Armenian
justice ministry and polish Stefan Batory foundation, titled Drug
Addiction and Treatment and Prevention of Alcoholism. For the past 11
years the program has been running with great success in Polish
prisons. According to official figures, there are 35 drug addicts in
Armenian prisons, however, the real number is thought to be by far
higher.

–Boundary_(ID_wTSi2Hre5wodh94hlaiStA)–