asked the Minister for Health the policy of his Department for the development of community alcoholic detoxification units.
447.
Written Answers. - Alcoholic Detoxification Units.
446.
asked the Minister for Health the alcoholic detoxification units that currently exist in (a) general hospitals and (b) elsewhere.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 446 and 447 together. An extensive range of inpatient services is available for persons suffering from alcoholism and I am advised that the initial step of detoxification in the treatment of such patients, which involves specialised facilities in an in-patient setting, should continue to take place in one of the existing centres with follow-up treatment in community-based centres where counselling and out-patient services would be available.
(a) There are no detoxification units as such currently in general hospitals apart from that in the Drug Advisory and Treatment Centre at Jervis Street Hospital where detoxification facilities are provided for drug addicts including those suffering from alcoholism. Much detoxification work is, however, carried out in the accident and emergency departments of general hospitals where patients suffering from alcoholism are admitted primarily as emergency cases. In addition similar facilities would be available for alcoholic patients who are admitted to the acute psychiatric units attached to a number of general hospitals in the country viz. Castlebar, Ardkeen and Clonmel General Hospitals, Galway, Limerick and Cork Regional Hospitals, St. Vincent's, Elm Park, St. James's Hospital, Dublin, St. Anne's Hospital, Skibbereen and St. Stephen's Hospital, Cork.
(b) Treatment for alcoholism, including detoxification, is provided mainly within the framework of the existing psychiatric services operated by health boards and by a number of private psychiatric hospitals viz. St. Patrick's and St. John of God Hospitals, Dublin, Belmont Park Hospital, Waterford and Lindville Hospital, Cork, and by voluntary agencies such as Knocklyon House, Templeogue, formerly the Rutland Centre Ltd.