Written Answers. - Alcohol Treatment Services.
Desmond J. O'Malley
Question:
23
Mr. O'Malley
asked the
Minister for Health
the plans, if any, he has to improve the facilities for the treatment of alcoholics in the State in view of the high number, apparently in the region of 75,000, who are the victims of the disease; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Peadar Clohessy
Question:
48
Mr. Clohessy
asked the
Minister for Health
the plans, if any, he has to improve the facilities for the treatment of alcoholics in the State in view of the high number, apparently in the region of 75,000, who are victims of the disease.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 23 and 48 together. Alcohol related problems make a heavy demand on our psychiatric services. Traditionally those suffering from alcohol related problems have been treated in our psychiatric hospitals.
However, the report of a study group on the development of the psychiatric services,Planning for the Future, published in 1984 referred to the trend in Ireland towards greater specialisation in the management of alcohol related problems. This approach often involves costly in-patient care which tends to separate the treatment and management of alcohol related problems from the environment in which they occur. The report recommended that the emphasis in the management of alcohol related problems should be on community based intervention rather than on specialist inpatient treatment.
There would, however, continue to be a need for detoxification facilities in hospitals and a small number of residential places for people who for social reasons, cannot benefit from day programmes.
The recommendations ofPlanning for the Future were endorsed in the Green Paper on Mental Health published by my Department in 1992. With the shift in emphasis towards out-patient treatment and counselling, it proposes that the consultant psychiatrist would spend more time in training other members of the inter-disciplinary team and in counselling and advising members of the primary care services. It noted that the role of the specialist service should be to support the general practitioner in resolving alcohol-related problems in the context of the health of the individual and family as a whole; and it envisaged an important role for nurses and social workers.
In line with this approach, comprehensive community-based alcohol treatment programmes are being promoted. Health Boards which have not already developed local alcohol treatment services are being encouraged to do so and to consider ways in which services provided by voluntary and private organisations can be integrated with health board services.
Ultimately, the emphasis in regard to alcohol related problems should be on their prevention. This is a key element in the formulation of a national policy on alcohol being developed by the Advisory Council on Health Promotion wherein the broader economic, social, educational, cultural and health factors which impinge on alcohol use and misuse are addressed.
