Concretizing occupational justice principles in Philippine community-based drug rehabilitation practice settings

Abstract

Background: The substance addiction and rehabilitation situation in the Philippines is a complex health and social crisis that has plagued individuals, groups, and communities in the past decades. While pluralistic and critical approaches to address the drug demand reduction issue are available, hegemonic practices continue to eclipse evidenceinformed approaches underpinned by resiliency and occupational justice perspectives.

Methodology: This case study utilized a qualitative and interpretive approach to describe the practice processes of localized community-based drug rehabilitation programs in selected Filipino communities and to propose concrete practice processes to improve the development and implementation of the local community-based drug rehabilitation. Two independent focus group discussions were conducted. Participants were health care professionals, community workers, and citizens who have an affinity to the substance addiction rehabilitation setting. Framed by the Participatory Occupational Justice Framework, specifically the practice process “engage collaboratively with partners,” qualitative data extracted from the focus group discussions were thematically analyzed. 

Results: Three themes emerged: (1) Changing perspective: starting from the community; (2) Better together: collaboration and coordination in substance addiction and rehabilitation; and (3) “Juan for All, All for Juan”: contextualized strategies in substance addiction and rehabilitation. The findings in the case study reaffirm the value of shifting from an individualistic (symptom-eradication) to populational (social and systemic interventions) perspectives in developing community-based drug rehabilitation programs. 

Conclusion: To reify occupational justice and resiliency approaches, proposed strategies include understanding drug use from critical and occupational perspectives, enacting social modeling and mentorship, promoting inter-agency and inter-professional collaborative practices, and infusing culturally appropriate strategies in the development and implementation of local community-based drug rehabilitation programs.

Published online: November 19, 2021