The General Direction of Social Policies on Addictions (DGPSA, for its acronym in Spanish) "should visit more often the therapeutic communities dependent on NGOs since it is done every 90 days and most patients leave treatment before 30 days," concluded the Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) in its report approved in April 2016.
It also stressed that "the aspects that relieve patients should be homogeneous both in personnel matters and the housing and food conditions." To this it adds that "in some cases regularization terms are given and checked on subsequent visits but in others, it is not."
The ONGs "are supervised by two psychologists from the DGPSA" whom the Audit observed them "should check the files of patients" because "of 29 monitoring reports analyzed, 16% had no reference of these controls, and 55% expressed a positive conclusion and 20% a negative."
The Direction is responsible for the Operational Management of the Addictions Social Assistance and Social Prevention Operational Management of Addictions. The first "should assist citizens who claim attention for treating problems with addictive substances, with the social reintegration as its axis."
Meanwhile, the second Management should "strengthen community networks and reduce the vulnerability of the Buenos Aires City locals in situations related to drug use." On this point the auditors recommended that the Ministry of Social Development, to which the direction in question depends on, "articulates its work with the Ministry of Education in relation to institutional communication, favoring to both students and teachers, to access various prevention programs."
The DGPSA has four own effectors, which during 2014 had attended 184 people, and therapeutic communities by ONGs which provided services to 818 people through 18 centers during the audited period.
There are also Community Care Interventions centers that are located in areas of high social vulnerability and in 2014 attended 198 people. A point to note is that "the professionals in these centers walk the poor villages and come into contact with the most addiction affected people in order to achieve a first approach."
How are the Centers?
"Overall, the building conditions of facilities are adequate," says the report of the AGCBA. However, it clarifies some "specific weaknesses" such as "lack of maintenance in some toilets." In Casa Puerto "90% of the toilets had no seat and two were out of service."
In The Reparo, the auditors noted "a hole in the ceiling of a room", while in the Believe is Creating Foundation "the lack of coatings in some bathrooms" were verified.
Feeding is another weak point. In all cases evaluated "Therapeutic Communities store and retain provisions inappropriately and there have been shortcomings in the infrastructure of non-perishable food sector." Nor do they meet suitable storage temperatures for food.
In Casa Puerto and Casa Flores "there are no hygienic practices in refrigerators, freezer and microwave" and in Casa Araucaria repeated observation, but, at this time, in items such as dishcloths and grids.