Addiction prevention

In 2015, the Dresden City Council unanimously adopted the strategy paper on addiction prevention (Strategiepapier Suchtprävention) in Dresden. This provides orientation for municipal addiction prevention activities for the period until 2025 in order to jointly reduce addiction-related and non-substance-related disorders and diseases and to enable healthy growing up in Dresden.

Download strategy paper (German)

An important target group for addiction prevention work in Dresden are children from families with addiction problems (COA = Children of Addicts/Alcoholics). More than one in six children in Germany grows up with parents who suffer from addiction. About two-thirds of these children later develop an addiction or other mental illness themselves due to the difficult family constellation. It is therefore important to strengthen these children preventively. In the following, you will find information on corresponding support services in Dresden as well as further links.

Handout: Services for children of addicted parents (PDF) (German)

The alcohol prevention project "HaLT-Hart am LimiT" was initiated in Dresden in 2008. As of mid-2019, the project was temporarily paused due to a funding restructuring and will now be continued in Dresden as of October 2020.

The project consists of two modules: In the so-called reactive component, children and adolescents who have to be treated in hospital due to alcohol intoxication are provided with a socio-pedagogical offer. This includes

• counseling session with the child or adolescent in the hospital
• counseling session with the parents and
• a group offer for the children and adolescents.

With this offer, we want to support children and adolescents with alcohol poisoning to learn how to deal with alcohol in a responsible and low-risk manner.

This approach is complemented by municipal efforts aimed at preventing alcohol excesses and harmful alcohol consumption in advance, promoting compliance with the protection of minors, and raising awareness among Dresden residents about how to deal with alcohol consciously (proactive component).

Early intervention for first-time drug users

The FreD course is an eight- to ten-hour early intervention program for (first-)time drug and/or alcohol users in the age group from 14 to 21 years (in exceptional cases up to 25 years). It is conducted in groups of 5 to 12 participants. In addition, there is a preliminary meeting (Intake), in which the prerequisites for participation are discussed, and a final meeting (Outtake), in which the certificate of participation is issued. There are no costs for the participants.

The course provides a framework for a process of reflection in which participants can take a self-critical look at their consumer behavior in a manner appropriate to young people. In addition, they receive information on relevant health and legal issues, as well as on important further offers of help.

FreD was launched in 2000 as a federal model project. The concept was developed by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL), which still coordinates the project today. The results of the scientific monitoring prove that FreD reaches the target group, that the acceptance of the offer among the participants is high and that changes in attitude and behavior can be achieved.

In Dresden, FreD courses are offered by the Diakonisches Werk – Stadtmission Dresden e.V.. An employee of the addiction counseling center Dresden-Mitte is certified as a FreD trainer.

Decisive for the success of FreD is above all the establishment and maintenance of sustainable local cooperation structures. FreD can only succeed together! Every institution in which young drug users become conspicuous (youth court services, police, judiciary, counseling centers, school, youth welfare, training and employment centers, etc.) is invited to participate in the cooperation so that early intervention can be made.

Contact

Diakonie addiction counseling Dresden-Mitte
Mr. Manfred Kuhn (FreD Trainer)
Fetscherstrasse 10
01307 Dresden

Phone: 0351-4468977
E-Mail: Manfred-Andreas.Kuhn@Diakonie-Dresden.de
www.diakonie-dresden.de