Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I am glad the Minister of State is attending the House to address this serious and urgent issue that has come to my attention. It concerns an e-mail sent to personnel in HSE West, which baldly stated that any patient attending addiction counsellors in the mental health services must have co-morbid mental illness and addiction and be under the care of the relevant catchment area consultant. It states that anyone who is not under the care of a consultant should be discharged back to their general practitioner. The same e-mail asked its recipients to please confirm that all addiction counsellors in their areas only treat people who have mental health issues as well as addiction.

This is a very frightening turn of events in the Galway west and south Mayo area, in particular, but I know that the mental health services also cover Galway and Roscommon. It has been brought to my attention that GPs will no longer be able to refer patients with an alcohol addiction to the HSE services unless they have been diagnosed with a co-morbid mental health illness. That means that scores of patients receiving support will be left high and dry in the run up to Christmas and that GPs will have nowhere to send patients who present with alcohol addiction problems for the foreseeable future unless they have the additional diagnosis. I find this decision to be totally unacceptable. Christmas is obviously a pressure point for families where someone has an alcohol addiction problem. I understand that this decision was taken on the advice of senior psychiatric personnel and that people working in this sector have been completely taken aback by the decision and the fallout that will ensue. According to the recent Galway city alcohol strategy, a total of 38% of alcohol drinkers screened positive for alcohol problems, 22% for alcohol abuse and 11% for alcohol dependency. One in five reported one or more harms due to their own drinking and one in four people reported one or more harms as a result of someone else's drinking. Therefore, this is an issue which affects families of people with alcohol-related problems, as well as those with such problems themselves.

Galway has a population of over 75,000 but there is only one full-time and one part-time counsellor for over-18s who are problematic drinkers. Waterford, by comparison, which has a population of 47,000 has five counsellors that are accessible to drinkers, as well as one outreach worker, 1.5 workers for under-18s, a hospital liaison nurse, a liaison nurse in other projects and a clinical psychologist. Limerick and Tralee also leave us in the ha'penny place, given the level of such services provided there.

Galway has been historically completely under-resourced for dealing with the issues surrounding alcohol addiction. I note that the Minister of State was in Galway recently when we both attended a consultation on the future drugs task force policy there. When she was there, the Minister of State heard at first hand the problems being faced on the ground. We have seen cuts to services in Ballinasloe, Merlin Park, the western region drugs task force and elsewhere that have exacerbated the problems. However, this new cut to services is totally unacceptable and must be reversed immediately. I will write to the management of HSE West but a strong intervention by the Minister of State, who has responsibility for this area, would be very useful.

I note there is a particular problem locally in Galway in that services tend to be pigeonholed either into drugs or alcohol services, where most people presenting with one or other of those issues have a poly-use problem. There are also issues with prescription drugs and other drugs people are using. There generally tend to be social and health problems associated with them. The fact is, however, that a vital service such as addiction counselling under the HSE is being limited in such a way that only people who have a dual diagnosis can be seen. That means that people who are currently receiving supports from the addiction services will no longer be able to avail of them. In addition, GPs cannot refer people who present as problem cases between now and Christmas.That is totally unacceptable.