Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Joint Committee On Health
Dual Diagnosis and Mental Health: Discussion
Mr. Mick Williams:
It is those people. However, there are the extreme cases where people are suicidal, have alcohol issues and have mental health issues, or are probably in a situation of drug-induced psychosis. They will be met and correctly dealt with by accident and emergency, but as soon as that gets lessened they are referred back to the community. They could be referred back to community psychiatric services. I do not know how long that takes, but it takes time. The best protocol would be to send them back to addiction services. They will be on it quicker, and they may have the linkage and brokerage to a psychiatric service, to a case management team and to institutions like Safetynet where they have hubs. That is not how all services operate and they do not all have that awareness. That is not a criticism of any other service. Services operate in different ways. Some services operate as fully drug free. They only deal with the drug free. They are about stabilisation, and they only deal with stabilisation-----
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