The aim of the Finnish – Russian co-operation project “Addiction problems and Health in Saint Petersburg and in the Karelian Republic” was to train psychiatrics- narcologists, psychologists, social workers and nurses to the current principals and to the methods of addiction treatments. The project also had the aim to introduce the participants to the Finnish substance abuse treatment institutions and to the treatment practice in Finland. The project started in 2008. Diaconia University of Applied Sciences was the grant holder and the coordinator of the project. The project was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. Main topics of the training were: establishing confidential relations with the patients, multi-professional team work, consulting drug addicted HIV+ patients/ patients with Hepatitis, motivational interviewing and working with different stages of changes, working in networks and principles of substitution treatment. The need for this training program arose from the fact that Russian drug addiction treatment differs from the European model. Reasons for this can possibly be found in the field of sociology, more specifically in the construction of Russian society during the soviet and post-soviet period. The idea of democracy and humanity are not yet stabilized enough for the awareness of humane life being the main value of a developed society. Not by accident, discussions about the compulsory treatment of drug abusers are held in Russia at the same time. Unfortunately the negative historical experiences of compulsory treatment for persons suffering from alcoholism, has not brought an understanding of the fact that a successful treatment cannot be a forced one. The main goal of any treatment has to be based on the rehabilitation and integration of the addicted person into society. Our material in the book is based on strict scientific facts, received through methods of evidence based medicine. In many ways this material differs from those approaches that are used in Russia. However, the integration of global experiences, the wish to work by the regulations of the whole civilized world and also the absence of contentment of already existing results of practices, from our point of view, make it useful to publish the material of seminars.
