Mr. Mick Devine:

We address mental health issues for clients by conducting a comprehensive assessment, including people's mental heath. We see the person has a complexity of need and so we do not compartmentalise different parts of the person's life. We work with the whole person. Once a person crosses the threshold, we work with that person. Where there are mental health issues, we work in partnership with mental health services. We adhere to HSE national protocols of case management and shared care planning and involves the case manager orchestrating the different parties that need to be involved in delivering care to the client. We are developing assessment tools to look at the childhood adversity our clients have had to encounter and survive and the resulting mental health challenges from that. Our services are now more trauma-informed. We are not simply treating an addiction; we take the whole person into account and tailor our treatment services to address the very acute sensitivities clients are sometimes coping with. We are becoming much better at providing the holding that allows a client to look at a complexity of issues. We also provide ongoing support. Part of the reason we developed a 12-week residential programme was that we realised a four-week residential programme does not really address the needs of people who might have mental health challenges too. The whole treatment process, including developing trusting and caring alliances with staff, happens much slower with people who also have mental health challenges.