CUBAN DRUG REHABILITATION PROGRAMS

Drug and substance abuse has taken a higher toll in recent times. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has accounted that over 275 million between 15-64 years of age abuse drugs and substances at least once a day. The higher rates of drug and substance abuse have not been unconnected to ravaging consequences including 20 million substance-induced disability and 8.6 million deaths with 160,235 and 145, 565 deaths caused by drug and alcohol respectively. As more people engage in drug and substance abuse, the rate of addiction has also gone up; birthing the need for proactive drug rehabilitation activities. In drug rehabilitation excellence, Cuba has earned a good mark.

Diego Maradona the great told his lawyers and families to return him to Cuba to continue his rehab activities. The story of the sports legend’s drug addiction topped the news in the 1900s and 2000s. After the suspension from the Italian League in 1991 and the 1994 World Cup, Maradona resumed rehab in Cuba in 2000. The sports star said he was convinced of getting rehab in the Island nation by the belief of the revolutionary, Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara known for fighting for revolution in Cuba and leading as a communist leader. Another reason Maradona chose Cuba was because of privacy. He indicated in his interviews in Cuba that in the Island nation, he had more privacy and could work about without having reporters flock around him trying to monitor his rehab process. He considered the heavy presence of reporters in his Argentine rehab place as unnecessary and disturbing. The remarkable thing about the first-class rehab provided to Maradona is that Cuban rehab facilities are top medical industry standard and can take in global leaders, world-class celebs and individuals seeking quality rehab programs.

The rehab program in Cuba includes a three-month rehabilitation with a focus on cognitive behavior and community regime therapies. The rehab includes a behavioral approach that allows patients to develop mechanisms of social control which are needed to repel the attraction to, ‘hard drug, alcohol, and substances. Also, community regime therapy is used. The therapy indicates that patients will live with co-visitors, share ideas with them, express frustrations and aspirations with them. The therapy’s target is ensuring full recovery through inter-persons engagement and communication. The Cuba rehab program runs for three months and at the end of the program, verification and evaluation will be done. The program includes feeding, medical examinations, electrocardiogram, blood tests, clinical and physical treatment, accommodation, psychotherapy, physiotherapy and recreational engagement. The Cuban rehab is one of its kind and widely known globally for effectiveness. The effectiveness depends on the top-rated medical facilities in Cuba; including the oxygen hookup, electronic bed, equipment for those with disabilities, nursing care, well-equipped individual bathroom, fast internet access, laundry and telephonic services. Language translation (Spanish/English) is also provided for guardians of the patients to aid effective communication all through the program.

The Cuban Rehab Approach

The history of drug rehab in Cuba dates back to the 1970s when the famous Ricardo A. Gonzales established the first medical center for treating substance abuse in Cuba. The medical centers became 15 in a short time and attracted the top crop of people from leading sectors in the world to Cuba. Rehab program for treating drug and substance addiction in Cuba has since been based on ‘Cuban approach’ which has not only proven to be efficacious and result-based but also pronounced in the successful treatment of Diego Maradona in Cuba. The approach has been highly used for successful rehab programs in Cuba; being one of the highlights of Cuban medical tourism popular on the global scene. The Cuban approach to rehab is carrying out detoxification and rehabilitation using therapies in serene and natural environments. High profile medical experts are engaged in implementing top-industry medicine and rehabilitative skills. The experts also conduct formative and summative evaluations for the rehab participants to monitor recovery progress. Also, the approach includes allowing patients to talk with others to improve their psychosocial balance and free their minds. The patient undergoes rehabilitation for behavioral changes to overcome addiction. Skills and strategies for coping with cravings, adapting to healthy behaviors, developing intelligence for acceptance and rejection, and controlling withdrawal symptoms.

A multidisciplinary approach is also engaged in Cuba to address the complexity of drug and substance addiction. Multidisciplinary experts are assembled to give rehab patients world-class services in Cuba. The experts include neurologists, psychologists, nurses, medical specialists, and psychiatrists working as a team to give patient-centric rehab services. The multidisciplinary approach is more effective because medical experts in collaborating branches of medicine pool their expertise and intelligence together in ensuring that patients are freed from addiction. Addiction treatment is more psychological and thus the approach isn’t one-way, unlike other medical services. The team identifies what level of damage the addiction has caused and begins to teach adaptive behaviors to break away while also using treatment to correct observable anomalies. The diagnosis from each expert will create a smooth rehab direction that will yield quality behavior-changing treatment for the patient. The recommendation from the experts creates a window for each member of the team to participate in integrative therapies for the patients rather than disjointed and isolated rehab care. Using the Cuban approach of naturality and community therapy coupled with the multidisciplinary approach has positioned rehab care in Cuba on a golden pedestal in global ranking; making Cuba a priority place for treating drug and drink addiction.

North American Rehab Program vs Cuban Rehab Program

The North American rehab programs depend on an individualistic approach. The approach is applicable when rehab patients are given personalized services and not a kind of community regime therapy as it is done in Cuba. The approach is integrated into medical detox and patients can opt for in-facility or home services. The North American rehab approach is flexible and is easily customized to accommodate patients’ differences to bring about effective behavioral changes. Natural coping skills and strategies are also used at the North American rehab programs and this has proven effective because patients can get freedom from drug or alcohol addiction without resorting to drugs. The programs combine human nutrition, yoga services, gardens for meditation, massage, bio-sound therapies, and acupuncture to arrive at a lasting addiction-free treatment. Leading medical experts are engaged in rehab services in North America and they provide effective services from time to time. However, getting rehab treatment in North America costs as high as paying $18,000 for a single-track treatment. In rehabilitative treatment, experts have suggested that patients are likely to recover more on a single-track rehab than a mixed one thus when a patient doesn’t recover at the end of a rehab track, such an individual will have to start all over again—a fresh rehab program. Starting a new rehab program will help the experts working on the case make new diagnoses and adapt strategies for improvement where needed. The point is, rehab service in North America is expensive and not designed for the middle class and average individuals.

The rising death rates and psychological disorders are taking tolls on the lives of people especially the youths and young adults. Thus, affordable and quality rehab is needed to improve lives and correct the increasing anomalies resulting from drug, alcohol, and substance abuse. Unlike North America, Cuba offers specialized rehab programs for addiction and is considerably cheaper and more effective than the services provided in North America. With $26,000, you’ll get a world-class rehab service in Cuba including therapies led by medical industry leaders of ground-breaking research orientation. Cuba’s cost of rehab services isn’t up to 15 percent of what’s obtainable in North America and far outweighs the individual approach rehab programs provided there. Cuba’s record of successful treatment of Diego Maradona has placed the country higher than other countries in a track record of excellence in rehab programs. The cost-effectiveness makes Cuban rehab programs outstanding and easily accessible to individuals and communities.

Also, Cuba offers clean rehab programs free of unethical practices as they apply in North America. Some addiction treating centers in North America operate without a license and run body brokering. Brokering means they take in drug addicts in the guise of giving assisted medical treatments to them and instead, use them for profit-making. Some centers go as high as selling the pee of patients in thousands of dollars and implanting harmful drugs in them. These unethical practices are dangerous and may ruin the integrity of medical practice. In Cuba, only licensed medical centers are allowed to operate by the authorities. Cuba makes a safe addiction treating environment for patients because they do not have to fear getting worse or losing their lives while on the program.

Getting treated for drug and drink addiction requires trust. In Cuba, rehab participants are put at the center of the treatment and tended with utmost trust. Participants are not used for drug racketeering and they consent before the program starts; luring or coercing does not obtain.