Ms Paula Kearney:

Exactly. We have started a new group of women in BRIO and we are on their personal development piece at the moment. Then, in a few weeks, if I am doing the reduce the use programme in SAOL, one of the women will help to facilitate that, once she has the training. In the Dóchas Centre, there are three levels to the programme. In the third level, one of the women will come with me and co-facilitate that.

I will give an example. The BRIO programme started in 2017 and I took part in the first group as a participant. Because of the training I got, it encouraged me to go back to college. It gave me an understanding of how things work. I went back to college, then worked in the community development sector for a couple of years and I am now the co-ordinator of the programme. It was that investment into it and that building of social capital that most people who use drugs do not get. We need to start pushing the reintegration piece that Dr. Healy was talking about by making use of the strengths that people who use drugs have and not just looking at them as lesser people.