Chronic Toluene Misuse Among Roma Youth in Eastern Slovakia

Abstract

This report presents pilot data on toluene misuse among Roma (Gypsy) youth in eastern Slovakia. Twenty interviews were conducted with field social workers (FSWs) working in seven Roma settlements with a combined population of 17,050 people. An estimated 340 chronic toluene users, mostly males (90%, n = 306), were identified in the researched communities. FSWs reported that children younger than 10 years of age represented about 15% of users (n = 52) and that the majority of users (75%, n = 255) were between 10 and 25 years of age. Consequences of prolonged use on individuals and communities are discussed. The study's limitations are noted.

Keywords :

• Roma (Gypsy) minority
• toluene misuse
• sniffing/ huffing
• field social workers

THE AUTHORS

Peter Važan, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate at the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) in New York where he collaborated on a number of NIH-funded research studies (e.g., drug abuse treatment effectiveness meta-analysis, study of a modified TC aftercare for triply diagnosed population, and analysis of staying-safe strategies of long-term injection drug users). He trained as a Psychologist and received his Doctoral Degree from the New School for Social Research in 2006. During his Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Public Health Solutions/NDRI Behavioral Sciences Training Program (2008–2010), funded by NIDA, he also developed international research collaborations to examine substance use and misuse among the Roma population, the largest minority of Europe. Recently, he joined the Institute for Special Populations Research at NDRI to participate in two, five-year longitudinal panel studies: veteran reintegration, mental health, and substance abuse in the inner city and the impact of transient domesticity coparenting in poor African American families.

Maria Khan, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, University of Maryland in College Park. She has over 10 years of experience researching social and behavioral determinants of sexually transmitted infection (STI) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in vulnerable populations. She completed her Doctoral Degree in infectious disease epidemiology with a focus on STI/HIV at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the NIDA-funded Behavioral Sciences Training Program at the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI). She has also conducted numerous field studies to assess factors driving the STI/HIV epidemics in multiple settings, including in the United States, Burkina Faso, Jamaica, and Madagascar. Currently, she is conducting a five-year longitudinal cohort study designed to assess HIV risk within African American families affected by incarceration. Her project DISRUPT will examine the degree to which the maintenance of committed relationships during incarceration protects against psychopathology, drug abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and STI/HIV among African American male prison releasees during community reentry.

Ondřej Poduška, M.A., is an expert in various aspects of Roma ethnicity and culture. Since completing his studies of Ethnology at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, he has been conducting social science research in Slovakia. In his work, he examined primarily the social exclusion of Roma communities. Recently, he has been collaborating on a large ethnographic study of social determinants of volatile substance misuse among Roma (funded by the Open Society Foundation, Slovakia), in which he coordinated interviewing study participants in 30 locations in eastern Slovakia.

Lenka Š'tastná, M.A., is a Researcher in the Center for Addictology at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Charles University Medical School in Prague, Czech Republic. She holds a Degree in Psychology from Masaryk University in Brno. She served as an Executive Editor of the Addictology Journal in 2001–2002. She has been with the National Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addictions from 2003 to 2005, where she was involved in evaluation of drug treatment services and helped develop a system for certification of drug treatment providers. She has published extensively on the use of volatile solvents in the Czech Republic and on VSM by children from ethnic minorities.

Michal Miovský, Ph.D., is Head of the Center for Addictology at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Charles University Medical School in Prague, Czech Republic, and a Research Fellow at the National Focal Point for Drugs and Drug Addictions (NFP). He specializes in qualitative research methods and was responsible for the development of evaluation tools and systems to ensure the quality and efficiency of prevention and treatment interventions. He received his Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology from Palacky University in Olomouc in 2002. In the same year, he joined the Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic as a Researcher. He coordinated Component 3 of the PHARE Twinning Project “Strengthening National Policy to Combat Illicit Drugs.” He also worked as a Psychologist and Psychotherapist (specializing in Gestalt Therapy, Katatym Imaginative Psychotherapy, and Integrative Psychotherapy) in various addiction treatment programs. In 2005, he was named Associate Professor in clinical psychology at Palacky University in Olomouc.