Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 3 October 2024
Committee on Drugs Use
A Health-Led Approach: Discussion (Resumed)
9:30 am
Mr. Eddie Mullins:
Mr. Broderick mentioned female-specific services. We have Jane's Place, which is new service that has been open for a year now. The demand from females to use the service has been incredible. It is also a service designed specifically for the needs of women. We would be delighted if committee members were to visit and see this service because they would see it is a new departure and a new approach.
I briefly want to mention a group who really struggle and they are people who leave prison. I worked in the Prison Service for a long time. I now meet clients accessing our services who have left prison and within three or four weeks of leaving prison, their health status has deteriorated rapidly because of the level of services. It is an indictment on society to say that the services are better in prison than they are in the community but that is certainly my experience.
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