In-depth training for staff at cocaine treatment clinics

HEALTH Service Executive workers who will staff Ireland’s first cocaine treatment clinics in Dublin and Cork are to be given intensive training in the best intervention methods at Waterford Institute of Technology.

The staff will be taught medical, psychological, psychiatric and counselling interventions in courses to be held over the summer.

The clinics will be set up before the end of the year and are in addition to the drop-in centre for recreational cocaine users in Galway which was set up almost a month ago.

Together the clinics form a key part of the Government’s strategy to deal with a growing cocaine problem.

Their establishment was recommended by key Government advisory agencies last March and backed by Drugs Strategy Minister Noel Ahern.

A report on cocaine published by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and the National Drugs Strategy Team called for specific cocaine services, greater training for health workers and information campaigns for users. It said many users were put off by existing treatment clinics which were heavily focused, particularly in Dublin, on treating heroin addicts.

The HSE is also funding a pilot cocaine project in Tallaght and has appointed a project manager specifically to deal with cocaine.

Figures published in the Irish Examiner last month revealed a 900% jump in the number of cocaine addicts treated in the past seven years. However, national surveys show the majority of cocaine users are not addicts and do not seek treatment.