The new institute looks to reinforce the response-ability in the fight against addictive behaviours and dependencies, making up the fields of planning, coordination and healthcare service in this area.

The secretary of State of Health Promotion explained that, despite being scheduled for this year, it would only come “plainly into effect” in 2024.

“We have a completely finalised project which answers precisely the Government’s wants and design, which is to combine the responsibility of planning and coordination with intervention. This is what was separated” 12 years ago when SICAD was founded, Margarida Tavares revealed at the parliamentary Health commission, where the PCP’s request to clear up a point relating to the creation of a unique structure in the field of addiction behaviours and dependencies.

Margarida Tavares recognised that integrating the planning and coordination competencies with that of intervention “isn’t easy,” because SICAD is a general directorship, “an agile structure” needing to be found “that doesn’t drastically change the structure in terms of resources and costs.”


The government added that the new model, which had to be approved by the Council of Ministers, “isn’t anything special,” it simply intends to answer the need to offer healthcare service.


In her understanding, “it’s a very good solution in terms of integrating the service with the SNS” and it could allow for professional mobility beyond the opening of external contests.