Officials said the local health department is struggling to cater to the addicts turning up at the centres amid the shortage of manpower.
According to head of the de-addiction centre at local civil hospital, Dr Arvind Goyal, the counsellors play a key role in an addict’s path towards de-addiction and rehabilitation.
“A counsellor must motivate the addict to give up drugs and move towards an addiction-free life. This guidance is an important first step,” he said.
The guidelines say every OOAT centre must have at least one counsellor.
Dr Inderjit Dhingra, who has been working with drug addicts for over 40 years, said a counsellor is someone who gets to the ‘why’ behind addiction.
“Once an addict is made to talk, they will reveal why they turned to drugs and how deep was their addiction. Based on this, prescription is written. Unless an addict reveals their addiction level, we can’t give them the dose that will work,” he said.
“Without a counsellor, we are just throwing medicine away,” he added.
He noted that the state government’s ongoing crackdown on drugs could be complemented well with counsellors.
On steps being taken to fill the vacancies, Dr Arvind said they have written to the higher ups and are likely to hire counsellors soon. Recently, the state government decided to start empanelling private counsellors to make up for the shortage.
Civil surgeon Dr Pardeep Mohindra did not respond to repeated calls.
However, deputy commissioner Jitendra Jorwal maintained that they were ensuring that no addict left any OOAT centre without talking to a counsellor. He, however, did not delve into any further details.
