Community Bridge Model to Ensure 90-Day Structured Rehabilitation for Drug Victims Across Punjab: Dr Balbir Singh
CHANDIGARH: The Bhagwant Mann Government is all set to introduce the Community Bridge Model (CBM), a structured 90-day community-based rehabilitation programme that begins at a de-addiction centre and extends to patients’ homes. Once the patient is declared clinically fit for discharge, treatment continues at home.
The initiative is a major step in the state’s ongoing campaign against drug abuse under the Yudh Nashean Virudh (YNV) campaign, aimed at providing structured post-treatment support to individuals recovering from substance abuse.
Patients who complete detoxification at de-addiction centres are often referred to rehabilitation centres. While some continue treatment, many choose to go back to their communities, where earlier continuity of care was difficult or non-existent. Under the Community Bridge Model, after spending time at a deaddiction centre, patients will continue recovery care in their communities through structured home support, with tele-counselling and active involvement of family members, ensuring continuity of care and improving the chances of recovery.
This initiative has been conceived to address one of the biggest challenges in treatment: ensuring continuity of care and preventing relapse after patients are discharged. The Community Bridge Model follows a structured pathway. First, patients undergo medically supervised detoxification at the de-addiction centre before being discharged upon being declared clinically fit by medical professionals.
The community-based or home-based rehabilitation essentially starts a day before discharge, when the patient’s family undergoes a mandatory psychoeducation session to prepare them for supporting the patient’s recovery at home.
The next 30 days of treatment involve intensive tele-counselling with three to four calls a week. Mandatory dope tests are conducted periodically. Any patient failing a dope test is reassessed by the psychiatrist for further treatment.
During this maintenance phase, for the next one-and-a-half months, tele-counselling tapers to one or two calls a week. The programme concludes after three months, when the patient’s progress is reviewed and a final mandatory dope test is conducted.
The model has human intervention at three levels to ensure that patients remain engaged with the recovery process. If a patient misses counselling sessions, counsellors will immediately follow up, followed by supervisor intervention and family engagement wherever required. In cases of confirmed relapse or serious safety concerns, the patient is counselled to seek readmission to the de-addiction centre.
According to Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh, “The Community Bridge Model reflects a leap in Punjab’s anti-drug strategy by going beyond detoxification at the de-addiction centre to sustained rehabilitation within the communities of these patients. Besides improving long-term recovery, the initiative will enhance the efficiency of de-addiction services while ensuring more patients are able to benefit from them.”
He added that the CBM has been devised to establish a structured programme to ensure that recovery continues under professional supervision and at home, with the active participation of family members and dedicated tele-counsellors. Currently, the Government is piloting the programme in four select districts of Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Moga, and Mohali.
At present, Punjab has 56 government de-addiction and rehabilitation centres and over 540 Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics. A large number of victims of drug abuse have been brought under the formal treatment system. However, it was observed that after successfully completing detoxification, many patients returned home without a structured and supervised pathway, increasing the possibility of relapse. At the same time, prolonged stays of clinically stable patients at centres reduced the availability of beds for newly admitted patients. The Community Bridge Model has been designed to bridge this critical gap by ensuring continuity of care while also improving the capacity of treatment centres.
