Sixty professionals from the field of addictions, including social workers, psychologists and medical doctors specialising in the area, are participating in an intensive five-day training course entitled Relapse Prevention Therapy Workshop, being run by Agenzija Sedqa this week.

It is the second specialised training course in a month by the agency.

The training aims at preventing relapse and is very focused and specialised. Sedqa said it recognised the fact that preventing relapse was essential in the ongoing process of rehabilitation, during which clients developed positive values that enabled them to re-integrate into society.

US Ambassador Molly Bordonaro expressed her appreciation for the invitation to open the workshop and highlighted the US government’s commitment to support substance abuse rehabilitation programmes. She praised Sedqa’s excellent track record and the dedication of all those who constantly struggled to give hope and dignity to victims of substance abuse.

Joe Gerada, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, said the programme was one of a series of training programmes that the Foundation had been running in order to upgrade even more the professional standards of local staff. Sedqa alone had invested 2,500 hours in training, at a cost of Lm10,000, in the first four months of this year.

Addressing course participants, Sedqa operations director Jean-Claude Cardona introduced the facilitator of the training, Dr George A. Parks, and said that as an internationally known expert in relapse prevention therapy, Dr Parks had vast experience from which all those present could benefit. Mr Cardona also referred to the agency’s objective in connection with the continuous development of staff, and said: “Sedqa has always acknowledged the need to invest in structured and specialised training for its staff.”

Dr Parks is a clinical psychologist licensed in the State of Washington in the USA and associate director of the Addictive Behaviours Research Centre in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington.