Ms Annmarie Dunphy:

For women who use drugs and especially mothers who use drugs, they are completed isolated away. It is like they are invisible and their voices are not being heard. To be honest, I was like that myself until I came to Uisce and it gave me the opportunity to find my voice and speak out for other mothers in addiction as well. There are no services. I am from the midlands and I have to travel up to Dublin to Uisce. We are advocating and out there daily with outreach and advocating for women who are in addiction. All they need is support. They are being punished for speaking up but if they had those supports in place and had a wrap-around service, it would be a lot better for them to try to recover and heal.

Punishing them is causing generational trauma. That is what we need to stop and it spills into our families, our children, our community and everyone. There needs to be more supports in place. Women are afraid to speak out incase their kids will be taken and they will be stigmatised, which they are. Something needs to change because what we are doing now is not working.