A meeting with the management of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Programme Office for Eastern Europe countries took place at KhNUIA. The event was attended by the First Vice-Rector of the University Dmytro Shvets, Head and Deputy Head of the Research Laboratory on Crime Enforcement Kostiantyn Buhaichuk and Oleksii Serdiuk, Head of the UNODC Programme Office for Eastern Europe Zhannat Kosmukhamedova, National Programme Officer of UNODC Serhii Rudyi and International Consultant of UNODC Andrii Saladovnykov.

During the meeting, issues of cooperation with the university on the implementation of a joint project to apply standards and algorithms for organizing the activities of the National Police of Ukraine units to interact with communities in informing high-risk groups about human immunodeficiency virus infection were discussed.

Employees of the Research Laboratory on Crime Enforcement of KhNUIA – Head and Deputy Head of the Laboratory Kostiantyn Buhaichuk and Oleksii Serdiuk, together with the Department on Combating Drug-Related Crimes of the National Police of Ukraine and UNODC prepared a draft Instruction on the organization of the National Police of Ukraine activities to interact with communities when informing representatives of high-risk groups in relation to the human immunodeficiency virus infection. This instruction implements the global standard of "referral", according to which when police officers come into contact with drug users (who have an increased risk of AIDS infection), they should be informed about the availability of medical institutions that help drug addicts - refer them to specialized medical institutions, and this significantly decriminalizes drug users and brings them closer to medical care.

The developed instruction contains an algorithm for informing and interacting with the community, samples of accompanying documents, a short diagnostic questionnaire DAST-10 for quick voluntary screening (questioning) of a person about the risks of using psychoactive substances.

The instruction is a part of the anti-drug material complex developed by KhNUIA and UNODC and some of them have already been approved, namely:

1) Methodical recommendations "Organization of activity of units of the National Police of Ukraine on interaction with communities when informing representatives of groups of the increased risk of infection with a virus of human immunodeficiency". This document is intended for use by police officers who, in the performance of their duties, interact with representatives of risk groups and persons with experience of drug use or their environment. The document was recommended by the Academic Council of KhNUIA and posted on the Educational Portal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the link: https://osvita.mvs.gov.ua/storage/KhNUIA/metod_1.pdf. 

2) Instruction “On the interaction of bodies and subdivisions of the National Police of Ukraine with communities in informing representatives of high-risk groups regarding human immunodeficiency virus infection”, which is proposed to be approved. 

3) Training course on the practical application of the Instruction on "informing-redirecting", which is proposed to be placed on the educational resources of KhNUIA as the format of a short distance course on 2 topics (to ensure its inclusion in existing courses as a separate module) and recommend it for inclusion in training programs for the NPU employees.

Department of Public Relations of Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs