Ms Cindy Barry:

I thank the Chairperson and Members of the Oireachtas. I represent the Family Addiction Support Network, FASN, which operates across Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. FASN supports families affected by a loved one’s substance use, gambling or related addiction. We are a peer-led, trauma-informed, community-based organisation working with the families who are too often invisible in policy and service design. Families are left to cope with emotional distress, trauma, financial pressure, domestic violence, child welfare concerns and burnout, yet less than 3% of national drug strategy funding goes to family support services. Many areas have none at all and those that do, like ours, are chronically underfunded.

FASN provides a 24-hour helpline; weekly peer-led support groups across the four counties; one-to-one support and crisis intervention; training and education in addiction, trauma, and coping strategies; advocacy with services, prisons, treatment providers and social services; and counselling for trauma and bereavement. Our work prevents and manages crises, reduces family breakdown, provides support and education and improves treatment outcomes at a fraction of the cost of hospital admissions, prison stays, or social service interventions, but we are at breaking point. Despite proven outcomes, FASN continues to operate on short-term, piecemeal funding. Staff carry unsustainable caseloads. Volunteers face burnout and demand is increasing, due to increased cocaine and polydrug use, drug debt intimidation, substance and gambling-related harm, and intergenerational trauma. Without sustained investment, organisations like ours will be forced to reduce services at the very time families need us most.

Our call today is for dedicated, ring-fenced funding for family addiction support under the national drugs strategy; full integration of family support across the addiction treatment pathway; a trauma-informed, whole-family model adopted nationally and aligned with Sláintecare and Healthy Ireland; recognition of family members as key stakeholders; and improved NDTRS data collection specifically for concerned family members.

Addiction may start with one person but its impact ripples across entire families. At FASN we see how support can transform lives. We call for addiction family support services to be delivered nationally, adequately funded and recognised as a vital part of addiction recovery. With the right structures, funding and recognition, families can move from chaos to coping, despair to hope and silence to advocacy. They can reclaim their lives, support their loved ones towards recovery and become powerful voices for change. When families are supported, communities are stronger and recovery becomes possible for everybody. We urge the committee to ensure families are no longer the forgotten stakeholders in addiction policy. I thank the committee.