Vol. 514 No. 4
145 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps, if any, he will take on a call for more satellite drug treatment centres in the Dublin area in view of the fact that latest figures for Trinity Court and Pearse Street indicate that drug misusers are waiting up to six months for treatment. [4479/00]
The provision of drug treatment services in the Dublin area is the statutory responsibility of the Eastern Health Board.
According to a recent report which reviewed drug services in the Eastern Health Board area the authors found that there has been a remarkable degree of activity and expansion within the drug treatment services in the area over the past five years. A programme of service expansion was embarked on that is probably one of the more innovative community drug service programmes in Europe. The drug services have expanded from three locations to over 50 locations in the space of these five years.
The board's policy is to provide locally based community services in areas of identified need and it provides a range of treatment services including counselling, maintenance, rehabilitation and prevention services.
Currently, the drug treatment centre at Trinity Court provides services to drug misusers who are unstable or who have no service provision in their local areas. I understand from the board that the waiting time for services in Trinity Court is varied but the average waiting time is three months. However, clients identified as being in special risk categories, such as pregnant women are given immediate priority.
The Eastern Health Board has identified a need for a further five treatment locations to be established in the year 2000 which will facilitate the movement of clients from Trinity Court back to their local community. When these centres are established the waiting times for the drug treatment centre at Trinity Court should be considerably reduced. Significant progress has already been achieved in relation to the establishment of three of these centres.
