Our Partnership

.

Handle it! is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership funded by the European Union. Within a professional European exchange of good practice between professionals, the project analyzes, connects and develope inpatient and outpatient treatment- and care-approaches and strategies for clients, who are using New Psychoactive Substances (NPS).

NPS are synthetically produced designer drugs. Their psychoactive effect is similar to that of other illegal drugs, but often much stronger, so there is a higher risk for a heavy damage of the individual health (cardiovascular arrest, psychosis, longterm brain damage). However, the manufacturers take meticulous care to ensure that the individual ingredients are not explicitly prohibited – hence the misleading synonym “legal highs”.

Handle it! involves institutions from Croatia, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Austria.

Science based

The project “Handle it!” analyzes, connects and develope approaches and strategies in outpatient and inpatient addiction care and treatment services in a European exchange of good practice between professional staff members of seven social organisations from Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Germany.

Network Project

Several week-long Learning-Teaching-Training-Activities allow a transfer of organizational knowledge from the local to the international level. The knowledge will be reflected, creatively stimulated and redirected to the professional staff
members of the partner organisations as manageable tools .

Best practice

The methods are expert lectures, topicrelated workshops and working groups, research work, good-practice visits, case studies and case reviews and the development of treatment concepts for example.

Social Media Dokumentation

The project activities are accompanied by a mobile reporting, which allows an easier knowledge transfer to the treatment centers of the project partners and increases significantly the distribution and transparency to the public community, too.

Our Workshops

The Learning Teaching Training Activities

LTTA low-threshold accesses

LTTA low-threshold accesses

Meeting in Budapest (Hungary), 9th to 13th of March 2020

LTTA semi-residential and day-care inpatient treatment

LTTA semi-residential and day-care inpatient treatment

Online-Meeting, 25th to 27th of January 2021

LTTA aftercare

LTTA aftercare

Meeting in Reichenau an der Rax (Austria), 20th to 23th of September 2021

LTTA prevention and outpatient treatment

LTTA prevention and outpatient treatment

Meeting in Madeira (Portugal), 25th to 29th of october 2021

LTTA NPS and Social Enviroment

LTTA NPS and Social Enviroment

Meeting in Venice (Italy), 28th to 30th of March 2022

Project News

LTTA5

staff survey

Dr. Dirk Kratz, Leader of “Therapieverbund Ludwigsmühle” (Germany), provides a summary of the staff questionnaire evaluation so far in the project’s final LTTA. The questionnaire was developed in working groups …

to the Projectblog

what our experts say

Dirk GastauerCEO

Therapieverbund Ludwigsmühle

Handle it! is the first European project, which uses a practice based approach to develope new professional skills for the counseling and the treatment of NPS-abuse. It connects actual efforts in drug research and the experience of the staff members of our project partner. I‘m very proud to be a part of this project!

Federica Ferraro

Comunita’ di Venezia

The „Handle It!” project is not only an opportunity for professional growth but it is also an opportunity to cooperate beyond borders and geographical barriers, improving and sharing knowledge. „Handle it“ is proof that sharing is growth.

Fernando MendesPresident of IREFREA Portugal

IREFREA

This project gives us the opportunity to network, exchange experiences, and integrate new practices.

Ela Meglamag.paed.soc.

Zajednica Susret

Handle it is a project that connects us on a professional level. I think it is useful to hear the experiences of other countries and their knowledge of new psychoactive substances. An added benefit is meeting co-workers face-to-face and visiting their countries.

Thomas Legl

Therapiesalon im Wald

NPS is an arising problem where early warning systems exist. Nevertheless there is little knowledge, work and cooperation in terms of implications on prevention and treatment. The project is aiming to fill this gap and will directly increase the quality of interventions from side of the international partners. Hopefully the dissemination will help to transfer new best practice achieved to other European organizations and colleagues working in the field.

Nikolaus LangeCEO

Baden-Württembergischer Landesverband für Prävention und Rehabilitation

New psycho-active substances (NPS) are a severe problem for drug treatment and the consumers themselves. Not rarely consumers are surprised by the impact of new unknown drugs, which can – in the worst case – threaten their lives. Therapists are sometimes at a loss with what they are confrontated. This international exchange will enable us to cope better with the handling of NPS from prevention to treatment and aftercare. We can learn from each other to enlarge our knowledge, our competences and performances. And by the way, handling it together makes more fun.

Péter OláhPresident of Megálló

Megálló Csoport Alapítvány

The spreading of designer drugs poses a new challenge for professionals dealing with drug addicts and their families.
I believe that the Erasmus+ project called “Handle It”, in the framework of European cooperation, can provide answers to burning questions that we also encounter more and more often during our work:
How to recognize the designer drug problem (which may be different what we have experienced for ‘classic’ drugs), what to say and how to say for clients, what can we do and what should we do, and where can we turn if the problem goes beyond our competence?