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Green
Crescent
movement
was
established on March 5, 1920 by 30
enlightened people who predicted
the destruction that addictions would
inflict on society after World War I.
The first field of struggle was alcohol
addiction, however Green Crescent is
today the only NGO in the world that
fights five types of addiction, namely
alcohol, tobacco, substance, gambling
and technology. With Green Crescent
Rehabilitation
Center,
developed
specifically for our country by Green
Crescent after an investigation of
similar centers in the world, we have
developed an integrated model for the
fighting of addiction. I would like to
thank everyone who has contributed.”
Counseling and psychosocial
support services by Green Crescent
Stating that the first step in the fight
against addiction had been taken with
the establishment of Green Crescent
Training and Counseling Center
(YEDAM), which become a role model
organization in the world, General
Manager Işık said that more than
50,000 people had contacted Green
Crescent Training and Counseling
Center to date. “Due to the lack of
an integrated mechanism for the
provision of psychosocial support
to addicts in our country, and after
exploring best practices from around
the world, we established Green
Crescent Training and Counseling
Center as an outpatient support
model that is unique to Turkey.
Through our centers, specially trained
psychologists and social workers
provide counseling and rehabilitation
support services to addicts and their
relatives. We hold events during
the YEDAM Workshop, which we
established to offer assistance to
addicts who have reached a certain
stage in their treatment, providing
them with the skills required for
various jobs. In retrospect, for the last
three years, figures have confirmed the
need for such an organization in our
country. Now, we are planning to open
YEDAM offices all across the country,
with one center in each province.”
Collaborations expanded
Stating that the most important tool
in Green Crescent’s fight against
addiction is its prevention and
awareness-raising activities, General
Manager Işık said that they were
working with many organizations so
as to ensure their efforts carried out to
that end are disseminated throughout
the general public: “For example,
we have delivered comprehensive
training courses to more than 800
school counselors as TBM trainers
and implementer training courses to
32,000 school counselors under the
AddictionPreventionTrainingProgram
of Turkey (TBM), in collaboration with
the Ministry of National Education.
This means that each year, we are able
to reach over 10 million students and
2 million adults. Another collaborative
effort is the Green Detector application
that we developed with the Ministry of
Health, which is a mobile application
aimed at reducing violations of the
smoking ban in indoor public areas
and in the workplace by enterprises
and customers. Green Detector is
continuing to raise awareness of
violations. Developed to protect our
citizens and to raise awareness of
their legal rights, Green Detector
allows its users to send a notification
by selecting the name of the workplace
with a single press of a button.”
Through our centers, specially
trained psychologists and
social workers provide
counseling and rehabilitation
support services to addicts
and their relatives. We
hold events during the
YEDAMWorkshop, which
we established to offer
assistance to addicts who
have reached a certain stage
in their treatment, providing
them with the skills required
for various jobs. In retrospect,
for the last three years,
figures have confirmed the
need for such an organization
in our country. Now, we are
planning to open YEDAM
offices all across the country,
with one center in each
province.
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