KUWAIT: The Halfway House of the Kuwait addiction treatment center is an integral facility that helps in the rehabilitation from narcotics and substance abuse. Opened in 2010, the halfway house recovering addicts to face their demons and learn necessary social and psychological skills would enable them to reintegrate into society.

Head of the psychiatric service at the halfway house Yaqoub Al-Shatti told KUNA that the facility received those in advance stages of recovery and treatment, which previously involve steps such as withdrawal symptoms and so on. The first two months in the house involved intensive psychiatric treatment for provided by medical professionals, followed by a decrease in psychiatric treatment and reoccurring visits to facilities situated in Fintas area, which usually takes around two to three months. The whole process would be done according to various methods including the 12-step- program, he indicated.

Developed in the 1930s, the classic 12-step program was aimed at riding individuals from addiction, namely alcohol. It is a lifestyle based on principles simply written in a digital mode from one to 12. The healing process at the halfway house also includes efforts and attempts to fix the patients' social, familial, and professional relations as much as possible, affirmed Al-Shatti.

In 2017, the Health as well as the Awqaf (Endowment) and Islamic Affairs ministries signed a cooperation protocol in which the latter would provide a fully furnished, serviced, and staffed building to house residents of the halfway home, indicated Al-Shatti. He noted that residents were permitted to leave the facility during certain times and dates as well being allowed to sleep at their family houses on occasion.

On the data connected with the success of the project, Al-Shatti revealed that the Ministry of Health was the only authority able to give specific numbers, however, he said that there were many residents who left the house some years ago and are still paying visits to the facility as friends of the halfway house. - KUNA