Seanad debates
Thursday, 21 November 2019
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Drug Treatment Programmes
10:30 am
Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, to the House. I pay tribute to her for the commitment, work and vision she has shown in her role. I thank her for being here this morning. As Members will know, there has been a significant increase in certain types of drug use in many parts of the city. I sit on the joint policing committees for both Cork county and Cork city. We have heard presentations on this issue. I commend the collaborative approach being taken by the HSE and the local drugs task force and praise Mr. David Lane, Cuan Mhuire and the Tabor Group for the work they are doing.
The significance increase in the use of cocaine and other drugs is, as the Minister of State knows, a source of worry. As somebody who was the Seanad spokesperson on issues relating to communities and drugs from 2007 to 2011, I believe the halfway house model which the Tabor Group uses at Tabor Fellowship House in Cork city has been very successful. There is now a need to increase the number of detox beds available in Cork city. It is about wraparound community supports being made available to people. I refer to access to care, access to counselling, and the whole area of rehabilitation and reintegration into the community and into families. It is through enhancing supports that we can offer people a second chance. Equally, it is important to make facilities available with regard to people's later employability and ability to reach back into their families and communities.
Through the work of Cuan Mhuire and the Tabor Group, we can see that there is now a need for more detox beds within the system. I support everything the Minister of State has done and is doing and thank her for it. The Southern Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force has been very powerful in Cork. It has been a very strong advocate and voice but has also challenged all of us. There can be a dual approach and a collaboration to address both mental health and addiction. These sometimes go hand in hand. That is not always the case but it very often is. I ask that we look at increasing the number of detox beds and amount of community support within the system in Cork.
Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Buttimer for raising the issue of drug and alcohol detox treatment in Cork and for allowing me the opportunity to update the Seanad on our position. Government policy on drug and alcohol addiction services is set out in the national drugs strategy document, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery - a health led response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland 2017-2025. My focus, and that of Government, is now on implementing the strategy and its 50 actions.
The strategy emphasises a public health response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland based on providing person-centred services that promote rehabilitation and recovery. A person-centred approach means giving people a say in their own treatment and supporting them to play a role in their own recovery. Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery reflects a change in attitudes to substance misuse not only among politicians but among people in communities. It promotes a more compassionate and humane approach to people who use drugs, with addiction treated first and foremost as a public health issue. This approach is underpinned by the key values of the national drugs strategy, which are compassion, respect, equality and inclusion. The strategy commits to expanding the availability and geographical spread of relevant quality drug and alcohol services and to improving the range of services available, based on identified need.
In June of this year, I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit Cork city and Cuan Mhuire's new step-down facility at Teach Mhuire, which provides an important service to men exiting rehabilitation, offering aftercare support and safe accommodation. I want to acknowledge Sr. Consilio and Cuan Mhuire for the work they do in providing residential detoxification and treatment for persons suffering from addiction right across the country. I was therefore very pleased that the HSE provided funding for this important service in Cork city.I was, therefore, pleased that the HSE provided funding for this important service in Cork city.
With regard to services in Cork city and county, the HSE has advised that there are eight medically supervised detox beds provided through Cuan Mhuire in Farnanes, County Cork. In cases where the demand exceeds the availability of residential medically supervised detox services in the Cork-Kerry area, the CHO has access to 30 medically supervised detox beds for adults in Cuan Mhuire, Bruree, Limerick, ten medically supervised detox beds for adults in Merchants Quay Ireland, St. Francis Farm, County Carlow, and four medically supervised detox beds for adolescents in Aislinn Adolescent Services, Ballyragget, County Kilkenny. Should a detox bed not be available in any of these facilities, addiction services in Cork and Kerry also provide medically supervised detox for service users in a community setting.
Typically, this would include detox from alcohol, opiates and benzodiazepines. This is provided in association with appropriate counselling supports through community services. The HSE has advised that funding was allocated for the development of a proposal for an eight-bed stabilisation unit for Cork in 2019. This comprises an inpatient stabilisation unit for people when complex needs prevent community stabilisation. In addition to the above, several general practitioners, GPs, provide their service users with detox medications, both with addiction service support and on an independent basis.
The acute hospital sector also provides detox for service users who are acutely ill in an inpatient setting, and mental health services and the acute hospital sector have recognised pathways to refer to addiction services through the crisis nurse and liaison psychiatry service. The HSE has further advised that a recruitment process is currently at an advanced stage for a drug liaison midwife and assistant director of nursing. In addition, an addiction counsellor post has been recently filled and recruitment is under way for a needle exchange worker.
Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge the significant investment and I thank the Minister of State for her personal intervention on the issue of Cuan Mhuire. She has been very supportive. Much good work is being done, although there are deficits and gaps that must be filled. We need more detox beds to ensure people have the ability to get clean, before moving to the halfway house and on to reintegration into the family and society. I look forward to working with the Minister of State and thank her for her reply.
Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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I do not disagree with anything Senator Buttimer said. The more facilities we can provide in communities, run through the HSE and community services, the better chance people have of being caught at an early stage in their addiction, which helps them in the long run. I was pleased to announce additional funding of €1 million in budget 2020 to support the implementation of the national drugs strategy. Two initiatives submitted by Cork Kerry Community Healthcare in conjunction with Cork city and the southern regional drugs task force were approved for this funding. These initiatives reflect the priority agreed between the community health organisation and the task force to target resources at groups most in need. Each initiative will receive a total of €190,000 over three years.
One initiative is targeted to provide special youth support to a significant vulnerable cohort of young people in Kerry. Another initiative will fund a case management clinical supervisor to enhance services across drug and alcohol homelessness and prison services in the Cork Kerry Community Healthcare region. I am confident that these initiatives will improve access to drugs services for people with complex needs and assist them in their journey to recovery.
The Department has been starved of funding for a long time and I am conscious of the fact that we are only starting to fund projects and community facilities again. I wish to work in partnership with the HSE and community groups. My responsibility, as Minister of State with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, is to ensure that the funding is used well and, most of all, that there is governance and accountability, be it in the HSE or in community groups. That is my job. I intend to ensure that when funding is made available to groups we will follow up through reviews of how the money has been spent. It is not my money, but the people's money. It comes into the State's coffers. We must ensure that when money goes to communities and to the HSE it is specifically monitored through governance and accountability. That is what I am trying to do, particularly in the task force area. There has been some upset in the task forces about that, but that is my job. I intend to finish the job I started.