The morning part of the regular meeting of case managers and professional guarantors of organizations involved in the project “Systemic Provision of Care for Imprisoned Drug Users and Its Subsequent Continuity after Release” was this time extended by the participation of representatives of the professional public. The meeting was also attended by employees of the Prison Service from cooperating prisons in various parts of the country, representatives of the General Directorate of the Prison Service and others.

Environment for cooperation

At the beginning of the meeting, Helena Gherasim, Chairwoman of the Council of the Association of Providers of Addiction Services (APAS), which is the implementer of the entire project, welcomed the participants. She thanked all those who were directly involved in the implementation of the project and all those who were involved in various forms – from the clients to the staff of the Prison Service and other services to which the case managers directed the clients. She also described the activities of the entire association and member organizations in working with the target group of people with addiction not only in prison and after their release.

Vojtěch Betka, the expert guarantor of the project for the field of networking, presented the history and present of penitentiary and post-penitentiary care programmes for imprisoned drug users.

Mr. Betka’s speech was followed by project supervisor Jiří Libra. In his review of the group supervisions with case managers and expert guarantors, he said, among other things: “I liked the fact that representatives of several large organizations from one area met in this project and were able to open up and share together. From a human point of view, this project does not have to be ashamed of anything, the atmosphere set up for cooperation has always been felt at the supervision meetings.”

We’re not so worried anymore

The last contribution of the morning part of the program was the presentation of Jiří Mertl, who is an expert in this project for evaluation and research. In his first presentation, he presented an example of a selected client’s journey with the support of a case manager using a specific story based on a research interview. “Interviews with clients showed the fact that people most appreciated when someone showed interest in them,” said Jiří Mertl during the presentation. He followed it up with a contribution summarizing several topics that will be described in more detail in the final evaluation report of the project. He focused on the area of financing of social services in the Czech Republic and on the topic of paroles and their unpredictable impact on the specific work with clients, on the preparation of their plans for leaving prison and on the motivation of clients when the application for parole is rejected.

In the discussion that followed, the representatives of the Prison Service also commented on the involvement in the project. “I admit that the Prison Service’s view of the entry of other external workers into prisons was often sceptical in the past. Some felt a little threatened that someone would duplicate their work. However, the experience of this and other similar projects shows that the work of such broad-spectrum teams is beneficial for our work. So we are no longer so worried to let other organizations into prisons. However, the motivation of the prisoners themselves is still essential for us,” said Vojtěch Kabelka, the 1st Deputy Director of the prison in Rapotice. “At the beginning, there was uncertainty as to whether anyone would apply for such a subsidy call, if there will be someone who can network so many entities at once. I am glad that this has been successful and for how many people’s fates this project has affected as a result – both in prisons and in individual organizations,” added Tomáš Koňák from the General Directorate of the Prison Service.

The afternoon and Friday part of the program was internal and the representatives of the individual organizations looked back at what their participation in the project brought them and what was challenging at various moments during the implementation.