Dr. Eamon Keenan:

Anyone who commences treatment in our service is captured by the complete national drug reporting service that feeds into the HRB. We collect information about the type of substance they use, their family backgrounds and their ethnicity. With ethnicity we can identify marginalised groups or such cohorts. We also collect information through the central treatment list for people on methadone. We are conscious that getting marginalised groups into treatment needs to be prioritised and we are putting in place effective mechanisms to be able to record that. It is important to note that addiction sits within the social inclusion section of the HSE which looks after vulnerable groups. We have regular contact with people who look after migrant health, Traveller health, LGBTI health and domestic violence. We all work together and as much as possible addiction takes all those parameters into account.