Ms Sarah McGillivary:

There is another aspect in that we are perpetuating pain and trauma and reactivating unnecessary things for the individual trying to access care.

Overall, based on my understanding of what we are talking about regarding types of recovery, I believe the abstinence model of mental health services seems to be at the forefront regarding how to gain access. Abstinence is not for everybody. People are entitled to a choice and opinion as to how they want to live their lives. If somebody wants to continue to smoke two joints of cannabis per week, why should they not be allowed to do that? Why should they have to go through the process Mr. Williams referred to if they wish to access services? It is exclusionary in itself. The irony is that we are creating social inclusion teams in hospitals, including accident and emergency departments, and in community settings. On a positive note, the social inclusion teams in some of the hospitals have been very helpful to us as an addiction service in Dublin 1 and Dublin 7. They have been very forthcoming in referring people from accident and emergency departments to addiction services. However, if we look only at abstinence or one platform of recovery, or at what people perceive recovery to be, we will never get to where we need to go. That is the bottom line. I am not saying harm reduction is the only way; I am saying individualised treatment platforms are the only way, whereby Dr. Mac Gabhann would be treated differently from Mr. Williams because they are different, grew up differently and have different experiences. They deserve to be treated on the basis of individualised platforms rather than told there is but one centre, which requires abstinence, and that they can gain access to it only if they are drug and alcohol free. What if they do not want to meet that requirement? Then they do not get access to the care.