I am director of the White Oaks Centre, which I founded in 2001. Sharon McMullen is the general manager and Tommy McCay is the secretary. I thank the committee for inviting me.
I was very impressed by many of the national statistics outlined by Dr. Farren. Our own report, Portrait of our Drinking, produced in June 2004 by the former North Western Health Board, bears out similar figures. Perhaps it is a little different because the statistics were gleaned in a rural area. The problem is certainly increasing and the need for the Government and all others involved to adopt a cross-disciplinary approach is certainly very real. If we do not face the crisis, it will become worse in the future. We have been doing so to some extent. The riots of last Saturday were not just associated with sectarianism or bigotry because we recognised that many of the facial expressions of those involved, as shown in the photographs of the events, were those of persons in treatment for alcoholism.
We belong to the Columbanus Community of Reconciliation, a lay community founded in 1981. It started in a bombed and burnt-out site that used to belong to the RUC. We renovated it and I asked for time out from the diocese to engage in the project. We had been visiting Long Kesh prison twice a week for seven years between 1979 and 1986 and consequently we know what is happening in Ireland, by and large. We had good results at our centre and then we opened another, St. Anthony's Retreat Centre, which is right on the Border. I live there on a little farm, which was very difficult to negotiate my way out of today because of the snow. Many have attended this centre since its foundation. I was once asked by a priest in Derry whether it was a travel agency for Sinn Féin because so many people went there as refugees having been excommunicated from the population of Derry — those were the days. We then realised there was a major problem with alcohol in the area. Following negotiations with the North Western Health Board, we opened a €4 million purpose-built centre on the Donegal side of the Border. I have been a priest for 40 years, working in both Britain and Ireland, and this is the most difficult and fulfilling work with which I have been involved. It is great to see those who have been destroyed by alcoholism and their families recovering.
The mission statement details how we provide a safe, supportive and abstinent environment where the client is at the centre of the programme of recovery, along with therapeutic support for family members. Our programme is based on the Minnesota model, with Hazelden trained councillors operating the 12 step model for recovering alcoholics. This is the AA model found in most parishes around the country. It involves one to one counselling and group therapy where the person is meant to find the truth, because the truth sets you free, although it takes disclosure and freedom from denial.
The Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean should be seen as the perimeters of our treatment problem if we are to take this problem seriously and deal with the denial about it. Socially this is seen as a weekend problem but the binge and heavy drinking that are sadly part of Irish culture form the backdrop against which many alcoholics have developed, with numbers increasing to a huge degree. There must be a moral examination of our values, over and against the good work done by economic success in providing employment and an economically viable society. There are other values we must take seriously if we are to address the problem in therapeutic centres and the country as a whole.
We place great store on meditation because our surveys show that if someone reaches the third step of AA, where he or she is in touch with his or her higher power, whatever that power might be, there seems to be a breakthrough in ability to lead an integrated, satisfied life, an ability he or she did not have prior to that. People first admit they are powerless to overcome their addiction, then admit there could be a power greater than the self to do something about it and then hand over their life on a daily basis. We emphasis meditation and have enjoyed remarkable success rates. A professional socialist and statistician from the health board is sussing out our results over the past five years. We are reluctant to announce figures but we are excited about the progress and the evidence we have that people have been helped.
Lectures on the 12 steps are part of our programme. There are also therapeutic duties, because we live on a large farm, including bog wood carving, and 15 volunteer women teach Celtic crafts and furniture restoration. Some people at the centre go out and drink while some people stay in. There is a second programme in place where we employ people who are not capable of going out on FÁS and Pobal schemes. Rehabilitation was good when people could be sent out to a normal society but what if society is not normal? What if society needs to be healed, if it requires the application of the principles of treatment we apply to victims of alcohol and drugs?
There is a two year programme of aftercare. People return and form other groups in Counties Donegal and Sligo where they follow up on the treatment they got — there are trained facilitators for this. There are also five people in long-term rehabilitation that is not paid for by the health board.
On funding, we read about large amounts allocated to drugs in the newspapers but voluntary contributions are vital, such as people paying monthly contributions by standing order. The local health board has been exceptionally helpful to us, it has been the best in the country in terms of helping to tackle the problem. It pays for medical card holders, of whom there is a disproportionate number given that we cover Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal where there are problems with poverty that do not exist in other parts of the country. We also have two private patients. Donegal County Council contributes €50 per head per week.
The gender breakdown of those seeking treatment is 65:35 male to female and the addictions treated include dual diagnosis. I met Deputy Noel Ahern who was meeting the regional drugs task forces. I pointed out that out of the random sample I had questioned, almost all of the young men were on drugs and drink. Dublin may be unique in terms of the drug problem and I understand it is important to deal with cocaine and heroin but, by and large, the real problem is still alcohol and most alcoholics between 25 and 35 are dually addicted.
The gaps in service that exist for us are the need for additional councillors for the long-term after-care group and family services. Families suffer and on a Wednesday, the family gets a chance to say to the client what they have been through and this is therapeutic for them. Until recently families have been encouraged to say nothing and to pretend the problem does not exist, that there is no pain or violence at home. This presents families with the opportunity to have their say and we encourage them to go to Al-Anon meetings which we hold. Family programme and extra counselling costs are broken down in our presentation.
There are ten or 12 residential treatment centres like ours in Ireland. They are founded by religious orders, like the Columban community in the diocese of Derry, to which I belong. These people have been pioneers in education and health in the past and were the first to open residential treatment centres. Do the religious feel they can contribute something in this field as a result of the spiritual awakening that seems necessary to the person who is seeking help? A belief in the higher power generally means a return to religious practice, with truth and respect for others. As church attendance around the country declines there has been a corresponding increase in the consumption of alcohol. The figure of 50% is not accurate. There has been a 41% increase in the consumption of alcohol in eight years.
I am part of the regional drugs task force and the alcohol task force in the north west. For all its good work the drugs task force is still at the point of requesting that agencies such as the health board, FÁS, An Pobal and the VEC be the agencies through which we can distribute the funds.
I have a suggestion that might also interest Dr. Farren. If we are serious about getting to the heart of the matter and wish to use our resources with as little bureaucracy as possible, the Government body should appoint a liaison officer or ombudsperson to visit each of the residential treatment centres and offer financial support for initiatives such as I have mentioned. It would be a simple way of cutting the red tape. As voluntary groups we spend too much time filling in forms and applying for funding, justifying ourselves day after day. I watch with some frustration as health board expenditure in other areas is not used as effectively as we might use it.
There are many meetings and much chat but little action. How can we move from the talking shop to the action shop to help practitioners like those of us here today? By all means monitor the centres but at least show appreciation and respect for the voluntary sector while it still operates in an increasingly mercenary society. The voluntary founders and people running these centres are treated as if they are less professional than statutory groups. We are not. We are qualified people. It is as if the concept of voluntarism has harmed us and we are not treated with the respect due to professional people who run their centres in a highly professional way.
I have some extracts from a report of the north west alcoholic forum produced in May 2004 but will not go into them because they are covered by the figures produced here today. These extracts show the effects of drinking. There are many other points I could make which may come up in the discussion, for example the loss of days of work.
In the north west 900 people have been admitted to Letterkenny General Hospital and to the Sligo hospital in one year. That amounted to 1,700 beds taken. If this problem were tackled throughout the nation the Minister for Health and Children would not have a bed shortage. We should treat the problem of alcoholism as seriously as cigarette smoking. Taxes could be raised much higher than they have been raised since the report issued by the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin. We must study the disruption to family life and see what we need to do to counteract the breakdown of marriage and the serious effect of alcoholism on children. Housing then becomes an issue — when a marriage breaks down the family needs two houses instead of one.
Is there a political will to face the reality that the Celtic tiger has the mechanism to bring itself down as the Roman Empire did? There is decadence in the society and it is time we all came together on this. Sadly, the church has half lost its nerve. I do not lose mine when I get a chance to speak about moral decadence. We need a spiritual revival, not just draconian legal responses to this problem. Curtailing opening hours on a Thursday night to 11.30 p.m. is fine, and I agree with making illegal the happy hour practice of selling two drinks for the price of one.
My father never preached against drink. My great-grandfather, after whom Carlin Street in Derry is named, founded a wholesale wine and spirit merchants business. I speak from the other perspective. My father is dead but I am sure he will forgive me for talking against the drink.
Treating the problem requires many actions. It is not just a physical problem of damage to the liver. I met a doctor friend leaving the house of a mutual friend who was an alcoholic and had died. I asked the doctor what he put on the death certificate and he replied, "Heart failure". I said, "I suppose the heart has to stop if one is going to die." He concurred. The man was a chronic alcoholic and died of alcoholism but no doctor can put that on a certificate. That is another statistic that is not available to us. The problem must be studied honestly and fairly.
