Bishop Methodius of Kamensk and Kamyshlovsky, head of the Coordination Center for Combating Drug Addiction of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service, held a one-day seminar on "Church assistance to drug addicts" in Shuya, Ivanovo region. It was attended by more than 60 people, including Bishop John of Shuisky and Teikovsky, clerics of the Shuisky diocese and employees of parish social services.
The seminar in the Shuisky Diocese was the 23rd introductory seminar organized over the past two years by the Coordination Center for Drug Addiction of the Synodal Department of Charity in cooperation with the St. John of Kronstadt Charitable Foundation.
During the seminar, Bishop Methodius spoke about how the Church treats drug addicts, what basic principles underlie church rehabilitation, how to help an addict who has sought help from a priest, and how to build systematic work with his loved ones. He also noted that anyone with drug addiction can call the hotline number for drug addicts for free and anonymously: 8 (800) 600-16-93. In addition, at the seminar, Bishop Methodius presented a "Methodology for the social rehabilitation of drug addicts in the church community," which was based on his practical experience in helping addicts in the St. George Parish of the Ivanovo region.
Bishop Methodius has been conducting one-day seminars on "Church assistance to drug addicts" since 2021. The task of the organizers is to tell the clergy about the problem of drug addiction and about church assistance to those who are faced with it. The seminars are implemented within the framework of the project "Saving not by force, but by skill" with the support of the Presidential Grants Fund. Previously, they were held in the Bratsk, Shakhty, Shadrinsk, Chelyabinsk, Volgograd, Podolsk, Kurgan, Zlatoust, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Alexander, Alapaevskaya, Kamenskaya, Kazan, Magnitogorsk, Troitsk, Nizhny Tagil, Kostroma, Kineshma dioceses, as well as in all the vicariates of Moscow.
Currently, there are 269 divisions of the church's system of free assistance to drug addicts in Russia. Among them are 46 rehabilitation centers, 76 counseling centers, 106 support groups. On average, 3,500 people apply to Orthodox care centers per year, and up to 600 people undergo rehabilitation at one time. To support drug addicts and their relatives, there is a single federal telephone number for church assistance to drug addicts 8-800-600-16-93, where you can get advice, find a suitable center for overcoming addiction or a rehabilitation program.