[A comprehensive community approach to problematic drug use: building a model]

Guidelines for a model of a community approach to problematic drug use are presented. These guidelines include the dimensions of comprehensiveness, social vulnerability, and care practices and knowledge in a broad sense. The characterization of these dimensions leads to what the authors call a comprehensive community model in contrast to a normative moral model. The differences between these two models are found in the concept of health, the objectives of the proposed activities, the conceptualization of the subject, and the operational framework in which each is based. The steps to be followed in the application of the community model--the ultimate goal of which is a system of community responses to weaken the system that generates the problematic drug use--are also proposed. These steps include identifying the problem as a community; bringing together data and previous experiences; organizing the community, including training of community agents; strengthening and connecting existing community resources; and designing consensus-based responses to the problem.