Download "Facing drugs within the Rom Community: gathering of information

The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Facing Drugs within the Roma
Community: Gathering of
Information for the development of
indicators
“The Sastipen Network Information System”
(Extract from the final report 2001)
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Is there reliable data on the health status of the
Roma population?
No , the existing data is:
 piecemeal
 dispersed and difficult to find
 in no use in the implementation of interventions and the creation of
policies and programs tailored to the different realities of the Roma
communities
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Thus, it is necessary to create an information system
on the health status of Roma:
 common to different countries
 applicable to the Roma Communities
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
The SASTIPEN Network “European Network for Drug
Abuse and HIV/AIDS Prevention in the Roma
Community” is an informal network comprised of
national organisations from different countries that do
social intervention work with and have a deep
understanding of the Gypsy peoples:
 Fundación Secretariado General Gitano – Spain
 Union Nationale des Institutions Sociales D’action pour les
Tsiganes-Etudes Tsiganes - France
 Red Europea Antipobreza– Portugal and Coordinamiento Nazionale
Communnità di Accoglienza – Italy
 Information and Support Center for Gypsies – Greece
 T3E Race Drug project – England
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Long term objective:
 To obtain ongoing and updated information in order to have a tool
capable of evaluating the impact of drug and health policies on the
Roma communities
Short term objectives:
 to be used for diagnostic purposes
 and design of interventions tailored to meet their health problems
like drug dependencies.
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Greatest difficulties
 collection of information
 No identification of Roma people with any of the health systems
operating in Europe
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Strategies to obtain the information and implement
different sources of data collection:



Search for already available statistical information
Search for and use of secondary sources of data
Implementation of a Delphi study with the collaboration of experts
from each country to fill in information that is not directly available

Ad hoc, studies to gather information
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
System’s development phases
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Criteria to select the indicators:
1.- Importance and relevancy of the indicators for health issues within the
Roma community
2.- The existence of the indicator in the non-Roma community
3.- The ability to gather the information needed for the development of the
indicator by means of one of the methods proposed
4.- Balanced coverage of the marked areas for the establishment of a
system of indicators
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Indicators identified on drug dependencies




Number and description of the people treated for drug
dependency
Source: Registration or case notification systems, Drug centres…
Deaths by overdose
Source: Police and penal and justice systems
Arrests for trafficking and/or consumption
Source: Police and penal and justice systems
Consumption of drugs (legal and illegal)
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
According to these
indicators, what is the
situation in Spain and
Portugal?
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Number and characteristics of individuals receiving treatment
for drug dependency
Study carried out in the Coruña Drug Dependency Treatment Unit on Roma
individuals on the period 1984-1995
Characteristics:
 86.8% were men.
 The average age of the men was around 25,5 and 21.7 in the case of the
women.
 Over 50% had been previously arrested.
 The principal addictive drug was heroine.
 75% requested methadone treatment.
Main conclusion: the demand was mostly for methadone treatment, the one
less culturally influenced from among traditional treatments.
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Deaths caused by overdose
 None ad-hoc studies or agreements with health authorities to collect this
information on a regular basis in hospitals and forensic services
Arrests for trafficking or consumption
 Most of the available data belongs to the prison population in Portugal and Spain
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
PORTUGAL
In the Porto Penitentiary Centre (Custoias – Portugal):
 75% of the arrests were related to drug trafficking:
• 70.7% for drug trafficking
• 4.9% for suspicion of trafficking
 61% of the Roma inmates suffer drug dependency problems although only 7.5%
have participated in the Support Program for Drug-dependent Inmates
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Another study on incarcerated Roma throughout the whole of
Portugal




As an ethnic group the Roma account for 5.5% of the total inmate population
The majority are repeat offenders and/or members of the same families.
Of these, 79% are men and 21% women
40% of the male inmates were drug-dependent (close relationship between drug
consumption and prison sentences) BUT this figure falls to 3.1% in the case of
women
 The relationship with drug trafficking, however, is much stronger:
• 64% of the arrests are related to drug trafficking.
• 93.2% of the women inmates are serving sentences for drug trafficking.
• 13.2% of the total number of inmates serving sentences for drug trafficking
are Roma.
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
SPAIN
In Spanish prisons:
 25% of the women inmates are Roma (while it is estimated that they
account for 1,4% of the total Spanish population)
 49% of the sample of 290 Roma women imprisoned in Spanish jails
was or had been a consumer of illicit drugs (This percentage rose to
between 60 and 65% in the case of those under 30 years of age)
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
Drug consumption (legal and illegal)
MEN
 Alcohol 76.2%
 Tobacco 83.6%
WOMEN
 no alcohol consumption was admitted and only two sites recognised
a very limited number of cases of tobacco use.
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
High incidence of consumption in some family
environments
Data withdrawn from a study done in Santiago de Compostela on the
incidence of drug-dependency problems within families (survey of 84
people):
 Spouse or partner 13.1%
 A sibling 36.9%
 A brother or sister-in-law 34.5%
 An aunt or uncle 41.2%
 A cousin 85.7%
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
CONCLUSIONS
 Scarce and no systematic data
 Sufficient number of indicators to reflect the situation of the Roma population and the
future evaluation
 Need to carry out studies all over Europe
 Effective implementation of a system of indicators
The “Sastipen Network
Information System”
For further information please visit:
www.fsgg.org
Or send and e-mail to
[email protected]
[email protected]