Ms Katy MacAndrew:

I was recently asked by the drugs task force to talk to all our service users about accessing mental health services, what the distinction is and how those services work for them. There is definitely a division between the two. Their experience of accessing mental health services with dual diagnoses was that they felt like they were being treated differently. From the interviews I did with people, I know that they definitely felt stigmatised if they were using substances. People whose cases were more serious and who needed to be hospitalised within the mental health system felt that they were given very high levels of medication during that time, particularly if they were suicidal and so on. It gave them and their families respite but they then had to come out and face stuff again. The division that has always been there is still there. I do not know if that answers Deputy Buckley's question.