We need to help those charities that give our children a better life

THE amendment to the constitution proposed in the children’s rights referendum seems, by fairly widespread consent among those expressing informed opinions, to be at least reasonably well worded and most certainly well intentioned.

Restrictions placed on broadcasters require me to be impartial and therefore to express no opinion as to what way I might think people should vote — which is far enough — although the requirements for 50/50 balance on constitutional referenda issues are going to provide major problems for all broadcasters when debating the substance of this referendum.

But in many respects I’m more interested in how we intend to enforce the rights of children if the referendum is passed. We have many existing laws that are designed to protect children but how well are they implemented? We have many services that are designed to give children a better, or even adequate, standard of care and protection, but how many of those are delivered and how many are being curtailed or abandoned for financial reasons?

Imagine, for example, that a child has a parent or parents who are addicted to alcohol, or to what are called street drugs, such as heroin or cocaine, or perhaps both, and perhaps with prescription drugs added to the cocktail as well.

Those are not the circumstances in which any child should be brought up, but unfortunately that is the case for some. What chance does that child have to progress in life? What are the potential health consequences for them as children and what are the chances that they will end up in the same unfortunate state as their parents?

There are some who would argue that such children should be taken into the care of the State, and there are circumstances in which that would likely be the best thing. But how successful is the State’s record of taking children into its care? Unfortunately, and tragically, we have far too many cases of children dying while in State care, or of continuing on a downward spiral that brings them to adult addiction, and too many examples of children simply going missing. Yet, there are too many examples of children being left in the care of adults who, because of their own inability to deal with their own problems, and fecklessness in many cases too, are allowed to suffer unnecessarily.

But is it not best for the children, as well as for the parents, to try to end the addiction suffered by the parents and to give them all the chance, at least, to form loving, supportive families? This is the type of work that is done at the Coolmine Therapeutic Community in Dublin, an organisation that helps people from Cork, Galway and Kildare as well as from the capital city.

On Tuesday I was invited by Coolmine to launch its 2011 annual report, outlining its work. Coolmine works to help people end their addictive dependency on drink and drugs. It does fantastic work and gets results: during 2011 it worked with over 1,000 people to support them and their families in overcoming their addiction. It treats people for their dependencies and, as people are weaned off their addictions, they are facilitated in going clean in so-called rehabilitation where they live for a period in a small, structured drug free community to prepare for reintegration into society.

This residential approach is important because it provides the support of the group and avoids the temptations that can be prevalent when somebody is trying to cope on their own. Participants are kept busy and must participate in educational activities, peer and individual therapy. The goal is to encourage psychological and lifestyle changes to enable people to maintain a drug free lifestyle.

Over the last couple of years the Coolmine staff has introduced me to people who have gone through the courses, both residential and by day. These people have told me of how Coolmine has helped them to overcome their dependencies; they now face their lives with renewed confidence and ambition. These people want to re-establish or establish good relationships, to work and to stay out of the trouble that often results from their use of drink and drugs. They want to look after their children, if they have any.

So far, so good. The people who are helped by Coolmine come from many walks of life. Some have had good jobs and supportive families but, for a variety of reasons, often related to mental health issues, have fallen into destructive ways. Others have come from deprived social, economic and familial backgrounds. They can be victims of what is called “intergenerational addiction”: the chances of children bwing introduced to drugs and drink at an early age can only be increased if they have been exposed to that lifestyle from an early age and know little or nothing else.

Some of Coolmine’s clients have been given a last chance by the courts: if they don’t clean up their acts then they will go to prison. Some have had experience of prison. They don’t want to go back and have a powerful motivation not to do the things that will send them back there.

There is a benefit to the rest of society in that. The streets are safer if people are not looking to steal to fund their addictions, if people are not going to attack others because they are off their heads on drugs. And the costs of keeping people in prison, running to near €100,000 per person per year, can be avoided.

Four years ago Coolmine expanded its services. It introduced a women’s residential service based at Ashleigh House in Dublin. This is home to the country’s only mother and child service, with an in-house detoxification service to get mothers off drugs, set up with one-off funding from the Dublin South Inner City local drugs task force. Since 2009, the service has been maintained through voluntary contributions alone with no direct State funding.

The numbers going through Coolmine are relatively small. Of the 46 women who went to Ashleigh House last year 36 were mothers with families (many with babies). Eleven availed of methadone detox placements. At any time Coolmine has a waiting list with about 20 mothers, and their children, waiting to get a place. It stands to logic that if these women have demonstrated a desire to beat their addictions, to be in a position to provide for their children, and have been accepted onto the course, that they would want their children near them.

HOWEVER, the service is at risk of closing for want of just €100,000 to employ a nurse and childcare specialist for the facility. As is common with many charities in the midst of this recession it has faced increased demands for its services at just the time it has lost funding from the State. State funding for Coolmine Therapeutic Community has been cut annually by approximately 7% each year since 2007. Every year Coolmine has managed to make sure that its frontline services were not affected, mainly by cutting back on administration — which makes up only 5% of income in any event — and on the wages of staff. Such cutting cannot go on indefinitely.

Coolmine in common with many charities is becoming even more reliant on the generosity of the public and corporate support at just the time when such donations are becoming rarer or smaller. But in some respects this public generosity allows government agencies to cop out. Even with reduced budgets the Government and its agencies have to make decisions as to priorities. In a socially responsible society that is about to enshrine the rights of children in a referendum wouldn’t actions be more significant than words?

* The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm.