No addiction service treatment for women in Derry

Women in Derry who are dealing with addiction have no access to Tier 3 services in the district.

They have no alternative but to travel to Omagh for specialised treatment.

This shocking revelation was made by Derry City and Strabane District councillor, Emmet Doyle (Aontú), who is secretary of the campaign for a Derry detox unit.

Tier 3 interventions include the provision of community-based specialised alcohol and/or drug assessment and co-ordinated care planned treatment and alcohol and/or drug specialist liaison.

They are normally delivered in specialised alcohol and/or drug treatment services with their own premises in the community or on hospital sites. Other delivery may be by outreach, including peripatetic work in generic services or other agencies or domiciliary or home visits.

This situation is compounded by the fact that the ASHA centre (addiction treatment unit) in Omagh is the closest Tier 4 unit for those in need of inpatient detoxification services in Derry.

Tier 4 interventions include provision of residential specialised drug treatment, which is care planned and care co-ordinated to ensure continuity of care and aftercare.

Cllr Doyle was speaking to Derry Now following the recent publication of NI Statistical Research Agency (NISRA) data which showed that 351 alcohol-specific deaths were registered in the North last year.

He said: “If you are a woman in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area who is seeking treatment for addiction, you have to leave the district and go to Ramona House in Omagh, a specialised hostel.

“However, if you are a man in Derry and need a Tier 3 service, you can go to Damien House in Foyle Road.

“There is a massive issue here. It is a service configuration decided by the Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT).

“It was probably done on the basis of who was coming forward for treatment. Coming forward for treatment is a big thing on its own for people who have addictions, so it is very possible that, maybe, women did not come forward.

“The service in Omagh is a great service, however, the geographic profile of its users since 2017 shows that 59% of all those admitted to the service has been from the Derry City and Strabane District, which means Derry needs its own detox unit, as a matter of urgency,” said Cllr Doyle.

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Derry detox centre business case submitted

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While compiling the ‘Campaign for a Derry Detox Unit’ business case which was published in January 2022, Cllr Doyle discovered what he described as a “worrying upward trend of the impacts of alcohol and drug abuse”.

He said: “3,277 people attended Altnagelvin’s accident and emergency department arising from alcohol abuse, between 2016/17 to 2020/21,

“10,233 people were admitted to Altnagelvin due to alcohol abuse in the same period.

“When you consider there is only one full-time equivalent (FTE) alcohol nurse in the Trust area, it is clear the services are not adequately resourced to address what is clearly a growing problem and illustrates the need for Tier 4 provision in Derry.

“In addition, in the same period, attendances at Altnagelvin’s accident and emergency department arising from drug abuse or overdose showed a similar upward trend. Between 2016/2017 to 2020/2021, the total number of people attending was 2,501.

“3,139 people were also admitted to Altnagelvin in the same period arising from drug or substance abuse including overdose, some of whom could have availed of a range of tiered addiction services in the City,” said Cllr Doyle.

Worryingly, in terms of repeat presentations at Altnagelvin’s accident and emergency department, another upward trend was identified.

Between 2016/2017 to 2020/2021, 204 people repeat presented with chronic alcohol or drug abuse.

“Equally, those presenting at Altnagelvin more than twice a month as a result of drug abuse or overdose pointed to a problem in the community,” said Cllr Doyle. “There were 97 such cases.

“It is fairly obvious there was something wrong in Derry. The city obviously had its own problem. Even compared population wise to Omagh, the service in Omagh, whilst great for many people, just wasn’t fit for purpose for many people.”

Cllr Doyle said the public call for a detoxification provision in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area began with a campaign led by the Quigley family in 2013/14.

“It manifested more recently following the death of Louise O’Doherty and the awareness raised by her daughter, Tamzin White.

“In December 2021, we presented the ‘Campaign for a Derry Detox Unit’ business case to the First and Deputy First Ministers, the Health Minister and the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB)

“Derry City and Strabane District Council also affirmed its corporate position in favour of a local detoxification provision to complement other services including community detox nursing services.

“We actually received an extremely encouraging reply from the HSBC Chief Executive, who acknowledged the ‘time and effort’ taken to prepare our business case,” said Cllr Doyle.

In the letter, seen by Derry News, the HSBC referenced the recently launched Substance Use Strategy for Northern Ireland - ‘Making Life Better-Preventing Harm and Empowering Recovery’.

It continued: “In order to ensure funding is used to best effect, we believe a useful first step is to carry out a population based needs assessment for substance use in the Western Trust area.

“This assessment will complement the work the Derry Detox Campaign has already undertaken and will be pivotal in assessing the priority of need and current gaps in service provision across the area. This will also act as a pilot approach to assessing need across the region as part of the Strategic Plan.

“I very much welcome the initiative you have taken in progressing the proposal to this stage and hope that this will align with the needs assessment and options appraisal thereafter.”

Cllr Doyle said the HSBC had now put the population based needs assessment. “A firm has been engaged and the work has begun,” he said, “and we hope to be very much engaged in the process.”