Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 26 September 2024
Committee on Drugs Use
A Health-Led Approach: Discussion
9:30 am
Ms Caron McCaffrey:
That highlights the point Senator Ruane made in terms of us looking at a different model. We have 19 Merchants Quay addiction counsellors. We have a complement of 20 and we hope to fill the vacant post shortly. We have sought four additional addiction counsellors through the Estimates process for this year. Given the scale of the need, we need to start thinking differently and become a little bit more self-sufficient in terms of people who can provide support to those in addiction. We are being creative and the recovery model comes from that in terms of training people to be recovery coaches who are living within our prisons and who have been on that journey, and who can have accredited skills that they can use when they leave us and can continue that work and help others in the community. I ask my colleague, Ms Hume, to comment, if that is okay.
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