On May 25, 2017, Mr. Dai Weidong, the Director of the Shanghai Drug Abuse Treatment Center together with three Executive Directors and other Managers, made a study visit to the Community of San Patrignano and had lunch with the 1350 residents of the community. This is the second visit of members of the Shanghai Center to San Patrignano: even in September 2016 a group of Directors came and visited our place, learning about our methods and visiting the workshops and all the areas in which the 1350 residents of the community receive their professional training, with the aim to overcome their problem of addiction and go back to society as positive and contributing members of it. The Shanghai Drug Abuse Treatment Center is a governmental organization providing drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation services in Shanghai, China. In addition to providing treatment and other services to drug users – detoxification, relapse prevention, group counseling, family education – they also promote and develop research on drug treatment through the participation in various programs financed by national and international foundations, in order to be involved as consultants in policy making process regarding drug abuse prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. There are millions of drug addicts in China – estimated 14 million in 2015 – and the Government is looking for new approaches to help users but still pursuing drug traffickers. China is finding his way and the Shanghai Drug Treatment Center is at the forefront in seeking effective and fair drug treatment.
San Patrignano receives every year hundreds of study visits from Institutional delegations, scholars and NGOs from many different countries: Sweden, Norway, USA, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Malta, Turkey, Brazil and Australia among the others, and is always willing to share its expertise in the field of addiction, and to exchange and confront with good practices. Three to four time a year, San Patrignano organize International Workshops for social workers, social practitioners working on addiction, researchers and NGO interested in getting to know the prevention, rehabilitation and social reinsertion model of the world’s largest residential treatment center. For further information click here