logo
Surge in women seeking addiction support in Dublin, says rehab service

Surge in women seeking addiction support in Dublin, says rehab service

The organisation, which provides drug and alcohol rehabilitation services across the capital, revealed that female presentations increased by 37pc in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year.
A total of 305 women accessed its services between January and March, up from 223 in 2024.
Coolmine said the rise reflects growing trust in its trauma-informed, family-focused services, particularly among vulnerable groups such as mothers and members of the Traveller community.
Cocaine remains the most commonly reported substance among those seeking treatment in Dublin, accounting for 35pc of all cases.
Alcohol followed at 29pc, with benzodiazepines noted as the most prevalent secondary drug, appearing in nearly a quarter of presentations.
All of Coolmine's community and residential services in Dublin operated at full capacity during the first quarter of the year, with a total of 756 people engaging in support programmes.
Speaking about the figures, Anita Harris, Deputy Head of Services at Coolmine, said: 'We're seeing more women seeking help, fewer missed appointments, and growing trust in our trauma-informed, family-based services.
'These figures show real progress, not just in engagement but in outcomes. We're proud of the trust our community places in us.
"Recovery is an ongoing process, and today's figures highlight the vital services Coolmine provides in Dublin.
'I encourage anyone facing addiction to reach out – support is available, and it's never too late to turn things around.
'Our clients are rebuilding relationships, improving their health, and finding positive pathways in work, training and education,' she added.
The charity also highlighted the success of its targeted supports for parents and families.
In the first three months of this year, 12 children stayed in residential care with their mothers through the Mother & Child Programme, while 100 families received tailored support via the Parents Under Pressure initiative.
Additionally, 48 members of the Traveller community were supported in accessing addiction services during the same period.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Working Life: My first-ever audio recording was done with our local parish priest in Mayo
Working Life: My first-ever audio recording was done with our local parish priest in Mayo

Irish Examiner

time6 days ago

  • Irish Examiner

Working Life: My first-ever audio recording was done with our local parish priest in Mayo

'I grew up with the radio always on in the background: Sunday Miscellany, Radio 1 news, and radio documentaries were often the springboard for conversations between my parents. 'My first-ever audio recording was done with our local parish priest in Mayo, when he interviewed myself and two classmates about our upcoming Confirmation. He played it at Knock Shrine over the loudspeakers. Fr Doherty was ahead of his time and recruited a few chatterboxes. 'I studied radio as part of a communications post-grad and had initially wanted to work in that area. After college, while working as a primary school teacher in Clondalkin, I volunteered at West Dublin Community Radio in Ballyfermot, where I conducted vox pops and interviewed teachers and young people for a radio show about education. I also covered news and local events, and it gave me great insight into marginalised groups within a community, often with limited resources. 'Like many, ambition and real life collided, and paid work led me down a different path, working with diverse and often marginalised groups — from ex-offenders to stabilised drug users. I found my way into the health service, specifically the then-Midland Health Board, where I worked with Traveller men and male adolescents as a health promotion officer. 'Today, I am still focused on promoting health, but now I work with a small communications team to promote and amplify health and wellbeing messages across a range of topics, using a variety of communication channels. We set up the HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing Podcast in 2023, for a trial run of 10 episodes — we recently released our 103rd episode. 'I host the podcast with two colleagues, Eamon Keogh and Noreen Turley. It's a platform that allows us to delve deeper into a range of sensitive matters of public concern, for example, mental health, obesity, vaping, alcohol, youth health, and men's health. The podcast gives the public a new way to engage with evidence-based health information. 'Communicating on behalf of the HSE through the podcast is incredibly rewarding. We have the privilege of speaking with fantastic experts, practitioners, and patients who generously share their stories and insights on a wide array of topics and policy areas.' The HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing podcast produces weekly episodes, aiming to empower listeners and their families to achieve their full health potential Read More What are the hidden health risks of zero and low-alcohol drinks?

Settlement of €1.9m for boy who suffered ‘severe personal injury' at Portlaoise hospital
Settlement of €1.9m for boy who suffered ‘severe personal injury' at Portlaoise hospital

Irish Times

time22-07-2025

  • Irish Times

Settlement of €1.9m for boy who suffered ‘severe personal injury' at Portlaoise hospital

A boy born in Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise who was allegedly delivered after a delayed Caesarean section amid rowing doctors and who suffered 'severe personal injury' has had a €1.9 million settlement in his favour approved by the High Court . The now 16-year-old was born on January 30th, 2009, at the hospital, which has been subject to investigation over patient safety. His mother sued the HSE on behalf of her son for breach of statutory duty – alleged medical negligence – to adequately provide medical services to her and her son in 2009 at the Co Laois hospital. It was submitted that she was due to give birth around January 25th, 2009, and had attended all of her antenatal appointments, culminating with a clinic at the hospital on January 29th, 2009, when no 'significant abnormal conditions in relation to the pregnancy were present'. READ MORE She was admitted to the hospital on January 30th, 2009, five days after her due date, but had 'slow and irregular' pain. A cardiotocography trace (CTG) was carried out and was found to be 'abnormal', as the unborn baby displayed 'frequent decelerations' in his heart rate. However, despite the abnormal readings, the CTG was discontinued. A second CTG was carried out at 8.45am the same morning that showed decelerations and abnormalities up to around 12.30pm. It was claimed that then a syntocinon treatment – an injection involving the drug oxytocin – was administered to augment labour. It was claimed that the readings from the CTG were not reproduced in a legible fashion and were difficult to interpret. A decision was made to deliver the boy by emergency Caesarean section and the boy was born at 1.36pm, allegedly 80 minutes after a decision to perform the Caesarean was made – 50 minutes outside the usual time frame. It was claimed the boy suffered 'extreme difficulties' with breathing, due to hypoxia, and that there was a delay in his resuscitation. In addition, an altercation between members of the hospital staff occurred during the attempts at resuscitation of the plaintiff, it was alleged. During a second attempt at intubation, a doctor was interrupted by an anaesthetic doctor without invitation who attempted to force an oxygen mask on the child, it was claimed. It was alleged that the anaesthetist 'brushed aside' the attending doctor and raised his voice, shouting 'for f*** sake just bag him'. The doctor was eventually able to drain meconium – a baby's first stool – from the child through suction, after which safe intubation was performed. The doctor, it was submitted, was 'considerably interrupted in his attempts to intubate and resuscitate the plaintiff by actions of the anaesthetist doctor'. In the aftermath of his birth, the plaintiff was noted as being in pain, jaundiced, vomiting with streaks of blood, having hypoxic metabolic acidosis, high blood pressure and in need of ventilation. The plaintiff spent 11 days in intensive care, and an MRI scan showed the plaintiff's kidney and brain had an infarct resulting in 'severe personal injuries', it was claimed. At the High Court on Tuesday Mr Justice Paul Coffey was told by John Healy SC, instructed by David O'Malley of Callan Tansey solicitors, for the plaintiff that a final settlement of €1.9 million for breaches of duty by the defendant, albeit without an admission of liability, could be recommended to the court for what he said was the boy's 'turbulent' introduction to the world. Mr Justice Coffey approved the settlement and addressed the boy, who was present in court, saying he was pleased to see him 'looking so well and I wish you all the best for the future'. Reacting to the settlement, solicitor David O'Malley, in a statement on behalf the family, said: 'The family welcomes the settlement and for the security it will provide.' He added: 'It truly is a second-tier maternity system outside of The Pale. 'The family echoes calls by advocate groups to urgently review maternity care in Ireland. One cannot think of a more important right than the right to breathe and be protected at birth.'

Paws for thought: How a furry friend can help your family's health
Paws for thought: How a furry friend can help your family's health

Irish Examiner

time11-07-2025

  • Irish Examiner

Paws for thought: How a furry friend can help your family's health

FERGUS SHANAHAN, founder of the APC Microbiome Ireland research centre in Cork, was intrigued when he came across a series of photographs of Irish Travellers in a 2016 National Geographic magazine. Looking at the striking portraits, he was struck by the number of animals living amidst the Traveller families. It gave him an idea for a new study. 'There were a lot of animals — dogs, cats, ferrets, and always horses,' he says. Shanahan decided to try to characterise the gut microbiomes of more than 100 Irish Travellers and compare them with those of people in Ireland, Britain, the US, and Canada living more modern lifestyles. When his study was published in 2020, the results jumped out. 'The Traveller microbiome was more akin to what you see from hunter-gatherer tribes in Tanzania or Mongolian horsemen than the rest of the Irish population,' he says. Prof Fergus Shanahan, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at University College Cork and founding Director of APC Microbiome Ireland, the SFI Research Centre at UCC. Shanahan noted that indigenous communities from other countries in the study also lived in close quarters with animals. As he dug deeper into the data, he found that this constant animal exposure seemed to play a key role in their unique microbiome characteristics, more so than other possible explanations, such as diet. The diversity of their gut microbiomes particularly captured his attention because while Irish Travellers often experience poor physical and mental health, one area — directly linked to gut microbiome diversity — where they fare better than the rest of the population is their immune health. 'I ran a clinic for inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis for many years. Based on population averages, I should have seen 40 to 50 Travellers over the years, and I never saw one.' While one explanation could be that Travellers are often nomadic and can be reluctant to engage with the conventional health system, Shanahan says that this is unlikely to be the full picture. In his view, the apparent lack of Travellers presenting with very serious inflammatory bowel conditions suggests that they probably have better gut health than the average Irish person. 'As a socially marginalised ethnic group, it makes sense that they may not get to the attention of a doctor for things like asthma or allergies or eczema but it must happen if you've got Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis,' he says. 'Those conditions present with bloody diarrhoea, the symptoms are quite dramatic, and it's life-threatening.' It seemed to Shanahan that the Traveller microbiome was protecting them against these chronic inflammatory diseases and, somehow, animals were responsible. Puppy power While the concept of having pets is largely a modern phenomenon, humans have been domesticating and coexisting alongside animals for tens of thousands of years, and a growing amount of research worldwide is increasingly suggesting that our immune system has evolved to expect to see the presence of microbes from dogs, cats, cows, or horses. As a result, some scientists now believe that regular exposure to these bacteria throughout life triggers the immune system to develop in ways that are beneficial for our health, preventing it from going awry, as in the case of many autoimmune diseases, and attacking our own tissues. While you are unlikely to acquire any permanent microbial residents directly from your pet, Shanahan believes that animals can help transfer gut bacteria between different human household members. This increases the diversity of the gut microbiome, making it more stable and better able to withstand harmful pathogens from flourishing. 'We know that dogs can do this,' he says. 'If you and I are living in the same house and we both pet the dog, that is a way of receiving and transmitting microbes from each other.' Due to the benefits for the gut microbiome, enabling children to grow up around pets from the earliest stages of life, and even before birth, is increasingly viewed as particularly helpful for their immune development. Last month, a major new study found that growing up alongside a pet dog reduces the risk of eczema in children who are genetically prone to the condition. Children in the Amish communities of North America have previously been found to have significantly lower rates of allergies and asthma as a consequence of living in close proximity to animals. Similar trends have been seen in children who live on farms in Central Europe. APC Microbiome Ireland (APC) SFI Research Centre PI Liam O'Mahony who is a Professor of Immunology at the Dept. of Medicine and School of Microbiology, University College Cork (UCC). 'There have been some cool studies of kids growing up on these traditional Austrian farms where the cows are in the basement at nighttime, and they don't get allergies,' says Liam O'Mahony, professor of immunology at APC Microbiome Ireland. 'And, again, it's that traditional farming, interacting with animals, that seems to be important. The kids who grow up on more modern farms with more machinery and less contact with animals are far less protected.' Jonathan Hourihane, professor of paediatrics at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, points out that while pets are sometimes viewed as a potential source of allergies, this is much less likely to be the case if children are exposed to them within their first year of life. 'Exposure is generally now considered to be tolerising,' he says. 'The idea that you have to avoid something to prevent an allergy developing has been proven to be incorrect. We're meant to live with animals, and pets are part of normal family life. It's good for children's psychological and social health too.' Healthy outlook While caring for a pet can be expensive, it seems our furry companions can repay the investment in multiple unexpected ways. According to a new scientific review published earlier this year by psychologists in Australia, pet owners make fewer doctor visits per year. However, the evidence for whether they improve long-term mental health is inconclusive. The apparent immune benefits may further swing the dial in favour of pet ownership — but are there any particular dos and don'ts? According to O'Mahony, whether you choose to let your cat or dog sleep on your bed really comes down to personal preference. However, he says it's still generally important to maintain good hygiene practices and make sure that your animals are up to date with all their vaccine requirements. 'It is very important to keep pets vaccinated, wormed, and free from fleas as this protects your pet and you from dangerous pathogens and infectious diseases that can be very harmful,' he says. 'Likewise, with hygiene, a balanced approach is needed. 'We know excessive cleaning can be detrimental but there is a sensible minimum level that should be maintained, for example, correct disposal of poo in the bin is important to prevent disease.' And what about children who grow up without the presence of pets? Last year, a research group from Italy published data that suggests it may be possible to replicate some of the benefits by allowing them to regularly interact with animals in other settings such as zoos or during farm visits. In the study, in which children from homes with no pets were allowed to regularly pet horses under supervision, subsequent gut microbiome testing showed that their microbiomes began to produce more beneficial chemicals for immune health. It seems likely that having a pet at any stage of your life could yield all kinds of health benefits. 'While there is a critical immunological developmental window in early life where we think these microbial exposures have the most significant effects on the immune system, ' says O'Mahony, 'living with animals during adulthood remains important and will likely continue to provide immune health benefits.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store