The Amsterdam based Jellinek foundation is the largest institute specialized in addiction treatment and prevention in the Netherlands and is one of the leading centres in Europe. In the late 1950's the centre, which had been established in 1909, was named after Dr. E.M. Jellinek (1890 - 1963), an American biochemist, who was the first to approach the problem of alcoholism scientifically. The Jellinek activities focus on problems of alcohol, drugs, medicine, gambling and - increasingly - tobacco dependence. The Jellinek employs about 600 people and sees approximately 5000 patients (in- and outpatient) per year in its care and treatment programs.

The Jellinek general aim is to prevent addiction related health risks and social alienation and to provide integrated solutions for addiction problems. Differentiation is the keyword in everyday practice: the Jellinek is renowned for its Atailor-made treatment@. Prevention, treatment and social rehabilitation are all geared to the needs of individual patients and are based on scientific intake and assessment procedures. The Jellinek collaborates closely with its scientific research counterpart (the Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research) in optimizing its treatment evaluation and assessment procedures.

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In 1994 the Jellinek founded its international department. First the European Addiction Training Institute (EATI) was established (1994), an initiative that was supported by an international network of 12 other major European institutions for addiction treatment and research. 

For more on EATI see most of this site, for its Profile click HERE

Next, in 1995, a long term project was launched for the innovation of addiction services in Belarus. In 1996 a project - commissioned by the Council of Europe (Pompidou Groupe) - was initiated, in which 12 countries (European member states and countries from Central and East-Europe) collaborated in the preparation, production and dissemination of a common Handbook on Prevention. In 1998 the Jellinek answered a request by the multi-country PHARE-program and provided, together with 2 other institutions, technical assistance to drug demand reduction in 14 countries in Central and East-Europe. Other projects effected during the late 1990's consisted of consultancy and expert missions for UNDCP, WHO, Council of Europe and the Dutch Ministry of Health on such subjects as drug policy evaluation, the assessment of drug services and of prevention programs.

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Overview of current and recent projects

The following is an overview of international projects that have been implemented by the Jellinek Department of International Projects.

This project aimed to assess and improve the medical education in (under)graduate curricula of the medical faculties in Europe. In the project experts and medical lecturers from 6 countries participated (in a so-called Task Force Medical Education MED-ED). These countries were: Sweden, Germany, Greece, Czech Rep., Belgium and the Netherlands. The activities in this project consisted of:

• A feasibility study to determine the relevant factors for medical faculty planning in addiction training
• The development and production of core methodology and of teaching materials on substance use problems for medical students
• The training of medical lecturers in educating medical students and their provision with training tools
• The promotion of medical training on substance use and the dissemination of the results of the project in the medical schools in Europe
  

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Click Here for a link to an article in an EATI Newsletter on Medical Education

         Trans Drug Project for Health Professionals
January 2001 - June 2003  

The Trans Drug project aimed at training needs analysis in health and social services. The project was funded by Leonardo da Vinci (European Commission). Participating countries were Finland (A-Clinic Foundation, Helsinki), Slovak Rep. (Centre for Drug Dependence, Bratislava), Italy (Health Region Rovigo) and the Netherlands (Jellinek/EATI).

The overall objective (output) of this project was to design a Tool Kit for trainers and service planners, consisting of training materials and tools/guidelines for training needs assessment, training evaluation and on-line training.

EATI has prepared a translation of the Transdrug Toolkit, which can be downloaded from this site. The format is pdf, or portable digital file, the Acrobat Reader format many of you will know. Click on the next link to be transferred to the download page: To Transdrug Toolkit page

Click Here for a link to an article in an EATI Newsletter on Transdrug

This project on the phenomenon of street children, was aimed at preventing/reducing the health risks of (young) street children, who are affected by drug problems. In this community-based project a feasibility study was carried out in the city and region of Bacau to assess the support from agencies (child protection), authorities and NGO=s to strengthen the actions and interventions in outreach, care and follow-up treatment. In 2001 and 2002 a number of intensive training courses were carried out for care providers, outreach-staff and medical/child protection officers. Training materials, brochures/leaflets for professionals and the general public have been prepared. The project also provided expertise to create a rehabilitation centre for (very young) street children.

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This project was aimed at creating and extending an infrastructure for training and education in the field of alcohol and drug dependence for health professionals (including addiction specialists and general practitioners) in Romania. In a concrete sense, the project developed the Romanian Centre for Addiction Training (ROCAT). The project provided technical input through a large number of intensive training seminars, study visits and follow-up training. The project developed, pilot and produce training modules and teaching materials for existing university (medicine & psychology) and post graduate curricula.

The main target groups of the project were: university students in medicine, psychology and psychiatry and (in post graduate training) addiction specialists and health professionals. In this project (financed by the Dutch Government, MATRA Fund) the Jellinek closely cooperated with the Romanian NGO ALIAT and other counterparts such as the Ministry of Health.

The overall objective of this project was to strengthen and improve existing services for drug treatment and HIV prevention in 4 countries. Along with a sharp increase of drug users (esp. IDU=s) that can be observed in these countries, a rapid increase of HIV infections is going on. The first part of the project consisted of an overall assessment of existing medical and harm reduction services in the 4 countries in indicated and largely affected communities.

The second phase was the preparation and implementation of new treatment programmes for drug users (rehabilitation) and preventive services for HIV and other infections (Hepatitis  A,B,C, Sexually Transmittable Diseases et cetera). During 2 years, community based pilot projects were launched to decrease the threshold of services for drug users, that will attract a great number of health professionals, NGO=s and authorities. Themes central to this project were: overdose-management, outreach/mobile needle exchange, short term rehabilitation and substitution treatment.

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Jellinek/EATI is involved in a number of other international projects and activities around Europe.

In cooperation with the Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry, Jellinek/EATI organizes 4-days seminars for young professionals, working in the field on drug treatment and harm reduction. These young professionals (up to 35 years) come from countries in Central and East Europe and from the so-called CIS countries (former Soviet countries).

During the seminar, topics such as community needs assessment, drug service management and planning, and drug policy promotion are addressed in workshops, small group exercises and role-playing.

Click Here for a link to an article in an EATI Newsletter on Kasha I

This 3-weeks seminar, organized for the second time in 2002 in the Netherlands, is implemented in cooperation with the Trimbos-Institute and aimed at knowledge transfer, skills training and networking for people from ministries of the accession countries with tasks in drug policy planning.

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This project, carried out in Cherkassy (Ukraine) by NGO Escape is supported by Jellinek/EATI.

Jellinek provides training courses, supervision and evaluation methodology for 25 regional projects that are implementing community prevention projects in the region of Cherkassy.

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In the current stages of EATI market research has been carried out into the educational needs among the European colleagues at merely a limited and focused scale. The analyses that have been made were done according to themes rather than in width. Also, evaluations per training course are the source for fine-tuning the training product. These evaluations, however, are very much output-oriented and do not have a progressive nature.

Experience has shown however, that this provides a good starting point. In addition, a structured needs analysis will be carried out in full, which will enhance the quality of the training products to be offered.
Making use of various European networks, the EATI staff will gradually be able to take charge of this needs assessment and analysis of the various target groups by means of written communication. A particular sort of input will also be the regular visits to international conferences and other meetings of networks (workshops held, focused needs analyses).

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Newsletter

In order to reinforce the impact of training sessions and in order to strengthen its European network, EATI distributed a Newsletter. The EATI News serves as a way of promoting the various training sessions and enhances the information exchange and networking between trainers, participants and other interested parties.

Click HERE to enter our newsletter section

EATI increasingly makes use of expert and experienced trainers and guest lecturers, who are usually approached by EATI. They tend to be people already familiar to EATI or have been recommended by key-figures. Over the past two years trainers have also taken initiatives themselves to enroll on guest-lectures or trainers' activities.

Setting up a more structured inventory of the trainers' capacity available and opening their respective expertness to a wide European audience by means of a database are useful and paying activities. A basic format is already developed. The main objectives for the next period are to further expand the database and to make the contents accessible to a broader European public, involved in training and education.

Besides the already existing handouts and manuals, specific educational materials are being developed to support the effect and impact of the EATI training courses and workshops. These materials will not only be of interest to participants of EATI training courses, but will focus on a much broader target group of European professionals. The materials will also be made available for lecturers, involved in academic (under-) graduate or post-graduate training and education.

The following materials are available:

• Handbook Prevention; Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco
• Handbook on Local Drug Policy Training
• Manual on Strategic Management

Under preparation:

• Teaching Guide on Substance Abuse for Medical Students
• Textbook Substance Abuse for Medical Students

Please contact the EATI Staff Office for further details.

Please note that this material that is no longer kept up to date. Addresses and similar may very well be outdated.

This project resulted in certification of the products (i.c. training courses) of EATI, according to the ISO 9001 standard and a process description of the development of the institute on the basis of the system of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

EATI will publish the results of the quality improvement initiatives in their series 'EATI Publication' during the spring of 1999 and thus make the experiences available to a broad European public.

Belarus Project

In 1995 the Jellinek took the initiative to develop and implement a training and education project to innovate and improve the prevention and treatment of substance abuse problems in Belarus. During the first period (1995-1997) the emphasis was on innovating the medical curricula of the 4 medical universities on substance abuse and training of a national network of 80 professionals working in narcological services and lecturing at medical schools. Early 1998 a second project was initiated, focused on training professionals on the principals of multidisciplinary teamwork and of designing treatment plans. The final, third part, was the creation of a website in the Russian language, beldrug (click on the word beldrug to visit the site). The site included material published in the earlier phases of the project, such as: an educational manual on substance (ab)use prevention and treatment for medical students, a training manual for medical teachers, an educational guide on substance abuse for postgraduate medical professionals, the Belorussian Addiction Severity Index, 10 brochures and leaflets that were tested on a regional and national level containing educational and prevention material, a reference guide for social workers, information on the most widely used psychoactive drugs and so forth. Some material was downloadable in the pdf-format. In December 2000, the main part being ready, material was added for laymen, amongst other things answering frequently asked questions about drugs and the myths about drugs. 

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