On Day against Drug Abuse UOC speaks of the help to drug addicts

On 1 March, all churches and monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held services for the people suffering from drug addiction. A UOJ journalist visited the metropolitan church of St. Luke the Crimean at the Centre for Endocrine Surgery and asked its rector, the head of the Synodal Department of the UOC for social and humanitarian issues Archpriest Vladislav Dikhanov to tell us how the Church helps drug addicts.

"On the first day of spring the International Day against Drug Abuse and Drug Trafficking is marked. As this problem is first of all spiritual, on this day the voice of the Church should sound. Last year we took the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry for organizing annual events on this day praying for those who suffer from drug addiction.

The problem is very serious. What is happening to us now in Ukraine – the root of all this – is the lack of spirituality. The number of alcohol and drug addicts has significantly increased. In difficult times, when people feel depressed, instead of spiritual comfort a man is trying to somehow escape from the burden of the problems – economic, military, family – and, unfortunately, searching for the remedy in the wrong place .

Of course, you should look for the path to youself and not be afraid of life difficulties. We have to admit that we are weak by nature, but with God's help, we can overcome many problems. Thank goodness, today there are religious programs that work on the rehabilitation and restoration of the people who experience this addiction.

I am very glad that today we prayed together with the young guys, who have gone a very difficult path in life and found the strength to fight this disease. The Lord gave them healing, and may they keep forever the gift of life, granted together with God. Now these guys are helping us in social work.

Yaroslav, for example, stayed at the Dnipro rehabilitation pastoral centre of St. Agapetus of Pechersk. The deputy head of the Synodal Department Archpriest Tarasy Marchenko is in charge of the work for the rehabilitation of alcohol and drug addicts in the centre.

In addition to theologian education, he is also qualified as a psychologist. Moreover, in the city of Dnipro he also heads the chair – so he is efficient in rehabilitation issues. We decided to adapt existing methods for the rehabilitation of alcohol and drug addicts within the Orthodox Church," said Fr. Vladislav.

According to the archpriest, the UOC has organized centres for Orthodox rehabilitation in the dioceses of Odessa, Zaporozhie, Kiev. Currently, the Department for social and humanitarian issues is planning to coordinate the activities of all the Orthodox rehabilitation centres, to choose the most successful techniques, to share knowledge and best practices in order to improve the work on providing high quality assistance to people suffering from alcohol and drug addiction.