This year Muktaa Charitable Foundation conducted seminars on addiction medicine in Pune and Shirwal in Satara district. In addition to doctors we expanded our training programme to psychologists and councillors working in the field of addiction medicine. Three seminars were conducted this year. First seminar was conducted in Hotel Ambassador, Pune in September 2019 which was attended by 72 delegates. Looking at the overwhelming response, next seminar was conducted at the same venue in Pune in Jan 2020. This seminar was attended by a smaller number ( 37 delegates ) but by very knowledgeable delegates, indicative of increased maturity of our seminars. The third seminar was conducted in June 2019 at Shirwal in Satara district, Maharashtra. Here was the first time that we conducted a seminar overnight. This experiment proved successful in terms of imparting knowledge as the discussions went on till late night. 57 delegates attended. The forth seminar to be conducted in Satara town in first week of March was prematurely cancelled because of the Corona pandemic. The focus of all the seminars was learning the science and art of managing and counselling an addict and his family. These workshops were conducted in partnership and active support from Rotary Foundation, Rotary Club of Mumbai, Ghatkopar. A wide range of topics pertaining to addictions were covered during seminars. During the seminars, most importantly it was emphasised by most of the faculty that addiction is a disease. This helped in developing empathy towards the addicted patient without which proper treatment was futile. These included addiction as a disease, alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other hard drugs, mobile addictions, women and addictions, neurolinguisting programming etc. The seminars were conducted by eminent resource persons and psychiatrists from this field like Dr.Prakash Mahajan ( Founder Trustee of MCF), Dr. Swapnil Deshmukh, Dr. Ashutosh Chouhan, Dr. Bhalchandra Kalmegh, Dr. Avinash Waghmare, Dr. Bhushan Mhetre (all renowned psychiatrists from Pune), Dr. Rohan Bartakke (Tobbacco specialist from Mumbai), Mrs. Anuradha Karkare, Mr. C.G Deshmukh, Mr. Dwigen Smarth, Prof. Rajesh Tayal, Dr. Alok Deodhar, Mr. Rajesh Alone ( Eminant Psychologist and councelers) were the faculty guiding the delegates. The delegates and the faculty were given a “ Concise Handbook of Addiction Medicine” authored by Dr. Prakash Mahajan and Dr. Narayan Perumal, to guide doctors and councillors for the management of an addict. The expenses towards this handbook were sponsored by the Rotary club of Ghatkopar under the Global Grant initiative of Rotary club international. Delegates from all over Maharashtra attended. In each seminar we had invited a reforming addict who narrated vividly his real life experience which made him an addict and how he came out of it. Judging by the feedbacks majority of the delegates went home with a resolve to work in this field for the benefit of these unfortunate individuals. MCF will continue its efforts in educating the masses, doctors, psychologists and school/college students in this field after the lockdown due to the pandemic is lifted.

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