Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Link between Homelessness and Health: Discussion

9:00 am

Ms Majella Darcy:

In terms of the injection centres, Deputy O'Reilly mentioned that while it is important, it is also a small portion of the response. Rapid access is another aspect that responds to the needs of people who need more immediate access to a service when they say it. We only have a small window of opportunity when people say they want to do something. People may not know what they want to do but they are fed up with the life they are living and want to do something. We have that small window of opportunity and we need to act rapidly. The idea of the rapid access is to pick them up immediately and provide the service. It is a huge challenge. It has not been done in Ireland before but we should not shy away from it because it has not been done.

The idea of working with Merchants Quay on that project is to pilot it. One of our key requirements in that regard is for a pharmacist. If we do not have a pharmacist, we will not be able to unblock the system in terms of how long it takes someone to access a methadone programme.

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