Doctor Daneshmand’s full speech at the unveiling ceremony of the book “14 Articles About Addiction".
Hello friends, I am Reza, a companion.
The first time that I saw Mr. Dezhakam was early in the year of 2009 in a live TV program. There were discussions between us at that time. The discussion between us was not a challenging one but that meeting made me more acquainted with him and I approached Congress60. At first, I wanted to know the structure of Congress60. It was based on the rules and principles and its foundation was Mr. Dezhakam's experience and it has been gradually expanded.
These rules were based on a strict and principled structure that we can see them in such meetings (the same as what we see in today's meeting) and it was a remarkable point. Perhaps a strong point that drew my attention was that Congress60 is a combination of attention to various biological, psychological and social interventions, it means that in Congress60, as much as medicinal aspects were important, the same amount of attention was paid to rehabilitation interventions, recovery, sport, and so on.
I think we all agree that the whole structure has been formed by Mr. Dezhakam's charisma and the confidence that members have in him and after that, the system has been able to progress and go further.
Perhaps the only significant point about Congress60 is the solidarity and social support that exist in Congress60 and among its members. This solidarity determines attitudes and can help individuals to pursue the same and positive goals.
When I was the editor of the Quarterly Journal of Addiction Medicine, we published five or six articles written by Mr. Dezhakam. In 2014, he asked me to have an assessment of treating method of cigarette in Congress60. Actually, the method that he proposed for quitting cigarette followed the same main framework of Congress60, in other words, it is a scientific method with the edible nicotine as an alternative (using nicotine gums as a replacement for smoking cigarettes) that was accompanied with Mr. Dezhakam's unique attitudes and also social connections that existed in the legions.
We conducted a full evaluation of 100 women and men in 2014 and 2015 who were in this program (cigarette treatment) and I almost did every single interview.
We moreover conducted another evaluation and assessed the level of satisfaction of the program, including those who were in the program and those who completed it. We asked them about the impacts of the program on their occupational and healthy functions and we published the results of this assessment in the Journal of Alcoholism in 2015, with the assistance of Mr. William White and other friends who developed this valuable work.
I am very glad that I had this opportunity to become familiar with such a structure and at some point. I am happy that I also had the opportunity to cooperate with Congress60 and I hope that it will continue.
I hope that this system continues with dynamism and progress.
Translated by companion Marzie
Edited by Elahe