Exercise and sports programs are promising, affordable, and easily accessible adjunctive treatment options for addiction treatment. This was the main conclusion of the info day on “Sports, prevention and addiction treatment” held on Saturday, December 10 by KETHEA in Athens.

Based on the evidence presented by Greek and foreign experts, exercise and sports can improve the physical and mental health of people in the process of addiction treatment, with a positive impact on their quality of life and well-being. They create a social and emotional learning environment that improves social functioning and strengthens human capital, cultivating life skills.

Among the benefits of exercise and sports programs are the constructive management of free time with the exclusion of its non-productive uses and the strengthening and facilitation of employability.

As emphasized at the conference, sports and exercise lend themselves both to immediate intervention in the “here and now” of addiction treatment and as a lifelong health behavior.

The above makes it clear that participation in exercise and sports programs also needs to be an important and integral part of preventing substance use and other forms of addiction.

During the day, good practices from various European countries were presented, as well as the “Empower plus” toolkit for strengthening the treatment of addictions through sports and physical exercise.

The conference was held as part of the two-day “Sports and rehabilitation” events organized by KETHEA on December 10 & 11, 2022.

Co-organization: Stadium of Peace & Friendship, and under the auspices of the General Secretariat of Sports, the Youth Sports Culture Organization of the Municipality of Piraeus and the University of Thessaly.

In the context of the European project designed and coordinated by KETHEA entitled Reintegration Through Sport Plus/Erasmus + Sport.

See the info day here: https://youtu.be/Z8aJGzcvEJk