SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Tuesday dedicated to the public a Rehabilitation and Socio-Economic Reintegration Centre for drug abuse victims at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS), Srinagar, marking the operationalisation of the Phase-I pilot of the Jammu and Kashmir government’s rehabilitation scheme.
The centre has been established under the Rehabilitation & Socio-Economic Reintegration Scheme for Drug Abuse Victims, 2026, initiated by the Social Welfare Department in coordination with the Health and Medical Education Department, district administration and other stakeholders.
Principal Secretary, Home; Commissioner Secretary, Health and Medical Education; Commissioner Secretary, Social Welfare; Divisional Commissioner Kashmir; Deputy Commissioner Srinagar; Principal, GMC Srinagar; Head, IMHANS Srinagar, besides faculty members and doctors of the institute, were present on the occasion.
After inaugurating the facility, Dulloo inspected the centre and took stock of the arrangements made for its functioning, including doctors’ rooms, patient and family counselling spaces, group therapy facilities and referral and emergency linkages.
Appreciating the efforts made in setting up the centre, the Chief Secretary said it should mark the beginning of a sustained rehabilitation journey for persons affected by substance abuse, enabling them to regain confidence, reconnect with their families and communities and return to productive and dignified lives.
He said the operationalisation of the centre was an important first step towards translating the rehabilitation policy into a practical, ground-level mechanism.
Dulloo expressed hope that the experience gained during the pilot would help refine the framework and facilitate its expansion to other districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
He stressed that the success of the initiative would depend on sustained coordination among government departments, health institutions, district administrations and community-level stakeholders, with each stakeholder performing its designated role effectively.
Commissioner Secretary, Health and Medical Education, M. Raju, said the centre had been envisaged as a comprehensive support mechanism extending beyond treatment and de-addiction to cover rehabilitation, recovery, family engagement and socio-economic reintegration.
He said the initiative followed directions issued by the Chief Secretary during a high-level review of preparedness for the Phase-I pilot, during which IMHANS Srinagar was identified as one of the principal institutions for implementing the rehabilitation model.
Commissioner Secretary, Social Welfare, Sarmed Hafeez, said the centre would provide a multidisciplinary support framework involving medical assessment, counselling, social-work intervention, family engagement, case management, referral and follow-up.
He said an Individual Rehabilitation Plan would be developed for each beneficiary to address the different dimensions of substance-use disorders.
The model, he said, would focus not only on recovery but also on rebuilding family and community relationships and facilitating access to education, skill development, livelihood opportunities and sustainable socio-economic reintegration.
Principal, GMC Srinagar, Prof (Dr) Iffat Hassan Shah, said the centre would coordinate with community-level stakeholders, including ASHA workers, self-help groups and other frontline functionaries, to extend rehabilitation beyond institutional care and strengthen community-based support.
She said the framework also envisaged creating a pool of trained medical officers, psychiatrists, counsellors and Social Welfare officials or case managers to work in a coordinated manner.
The initiative would also focus on capacity building in screening and assessment, referral, counselling, family engagement, case management, relapse-risk identification and ethical handling of beneficiaries, she said.
The centre will serve as a link between clinical care and community-based rehabilitation, with emphasis on continuity of support after treatment and reducing the risk of relapse and social exclusion.
The scheme also envisages strengthening addiction psychiatry capacity in Jammu and Kashmir through collaboration with the National Drug De-addiction and Treatment Centre (NDDTC), AIIMS, New Delhi.
The collaboration will include structured training, mentoring, observerships and joint research in areas such as addiction psychiatry, opioid agonist treatment, dual-diagnosis management and evaluation of rehabilitation interventions.
The initiative seeks to promote a people-centric, coordinated and recovery-oriented approach to substance abuse, recognising that sustainable rehabilitation requires not only medical intervention but also family support, social acceptance, skills, livelihood opportunities and continued follow-up.
With IMHANS Srinagar serving as a key institutional anchor for the pilot, the centre is expected to provide beneficiaries with a structured pathway from treatment and stabilisation to rehabilitation, reintegration and restoration of productive lives.
