Wednesday, 7 March 2012

Homelessness and Drug Addiction

I recently attended a course with Dublin Simon Community on drug addiction and homelessness which was fascinating. A lot of the homeless in Ireland have drug or alcohol addiction problems of one sort or another but that is by no means the case for all homeless people you encounter on the streets. Some people inceredibly, manage to avoid going down that route which always amazes me as I'm sure if the positions were reversed and I was to wind up homeless, I would resort to whatever means of temporary escape was available to me.

The temptation must be overwhelming at times as there are no shortage of drug users staying in the hostels and on the streets and drugs are readily available if you want  them.

Anyway, the talk was given by a man involved in training who had worked in homeless shelters in the UK and as such, he had plenty of first hand experience of dealing with people with drug and alcohol addictions. One thing that struck me from what he had to say, was how difficult it actually is to come off a drug like heroin in this country. Seemingly, once a person makes the decision to go off heroin, it can take up to 6 months to be admitted to a detox programme . Six months!!!! What use is six months to someone whose life has fallen apart and who genuinely wants to get off the drug? For economic reasons, methadone  which it seems is an equally addictive drug, is generally prescribed to users trying to come off heroin.
According to what the trainer said, once a user is admitted to a detox programme,  the first criteria is that he or she has to test positive for opiates. This is done by means of  3 (supervised!)urine samples. Users are then generally prescribed methadone. Contrary to what I thought, some people can remain on an 80 ml dose of methadone for ever, as the drug is so difficult to come off that this may be what is required to keep them stable and capable of living a somewhat "normal"life. If a user comes off it too quickly, they can easily relapse.

No comments:

Facebook Blogger Plugin:

Post a Comment