In response to the escalating public health problems related to the harmful use of alcohol and other psychoactive substance, the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) has begun a project using the WHO tool called ASSIST-Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test- for detection and early intervention for psychoactive substance users.

The aim of the project is to train a cadre of health workers who will use the tool for early detection of people at risk of harmful use of substances for immediate interventions. Since December 2006, when WHO/AFRO introduced the tool in a meeting in Brazzaville, it has trained a number of health workers in the various participating countries on substance use management using the tool.

As a follow up to the Brazzaville meeting, WHO/AFRO in consultation with the Ministry of Health of Ghana has held the first consultative meeting on the ASSIST Project in Accra to evaluate its implementation in order to improve countries' response to substance use. Sixteen Mental Health experts from Burundi, Cape-Verde, Central African Republic, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe as well as facilitators from WHO/AFRO and the United Kingdom attended the Accra Meeting held from 7-8 December 2007.

The two-day workshop provided a forum to discuss and review country situations regarding substance use as well as the main strengths and weaknesses in the use of ASSIST in routine practice. Also discussed were:

The need to develop culturally adapted training materials for subsequent trainings,

The organization of database,

Integration of ASSIST interventions into Primary Health Care and other different health programs such as HIV.

They also agreed on methodology and indicators for program evaluation.

In attendance at the opening ceremony of the meeting were Dr. George Amofa, Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Joaquim Saweka WHO Representative in Ghana and other Program Officers in the WHO Country Office and Dr. Therese Agossou, WHO/AFRO Regional Adviser on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Welcoming participants to the meeting, Dr. Akwasi Osei, a specialist Psychiatrist from the Ministry of Health, Ghana stressed on the usefulness and simplicity of the tool, its implementation process as well as its utility to reinforce evidence based decisions.

In a keynote address to open the meeting, Dr. George Amofa, Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service said the meeting was timely since the consequences of drug use was becoming worrying putting everybody at risk of drug use related crimes. He said this situation required evidence based information to enable countries act fast.

Dr. Hem Raj Pal of the ASSIST Advisory Committee said the WHO African Region is the only Region where multiple sites are undertaking the implementation of ASSIST Projects and called for best practices to be recorded for documentation and publication.