Tipperary community event hears about support services for addicts and their families

Caption for photo above: Riona Green of South East Family Support Network; Gda. Lisa Prendergast, Gda. Siobhán Hayes, Stay Connected founder Finn McLoughlin, Carrick-on-Suir Lions Club President Maura Barrett, The Other Side of Life Programme guest speaker Conor Harris, Gail Sheridan of Suir Valley Community Based Drugs Initiative, and Jim O’Dwyer of the South East Regional Drugs & Alcohol Task Force.

The Suir Valley Community Based Drugs Initiative, South East Regional Family Support Network and South Eastern Drug & Alcohol Taskforce outlined the help they provide to people suffering from addiction and their families at the Stay Connected community workshop.

Gail Sheridan is a Community Drugs Worker with the Suir Valley CBDI located at Carrick-on-Suir Youth and Community Centre at 56 New Street.

The service is often the first point of contact for people suffering from an addiction when they go seeking a treatment pathway. Gail supports them to get into a treatment programme.

She works one-to-one with individuals and with small groups of people of all ages who have drugs and alcohol addictions. She supports people around relapse prevention such as when social events are coming up.

The service also runs a family support group for those who have a loved one struggling with addiction and a community arts programme for people recovering from addiction.

“You don’t need to wait until a huge crisis, just reach out sooner and open up that conversation and just make the link before the big crisis,” she advised.

“If you do find yourself in crisis absolutely reach out too and get in touch and we will find solutions together.

“There are always choices when you feel there is no choices. You are not on your own and my door is always open,” she told the workshop.

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The South East Regional Family Support Network was represented by its Coordinator Riona Green, who has lived experience of addiction in her family.

She explained the Network is a peer led organisation that supports the families of those suffering addiction.

“We realise how difficult it can be for family members to take the step to reach out for help for themselves,” she said. “A lot of times family members are unaware of the impact their relative’s substance misuse is having on them.

“It’s not unusual for family members to come to us and say I don’t need the support, it’s my family member. We work to support family members to recognise the impact of the stress and the strain.”

She said a person’s addiction affects their whole family and family members come to them with loads of different emotions.

“Mostly they want to fix their relative. With the right supports people can get well and address their issues around substances but no one can do it for anyone else.”

She outlined the Network provides intervention, one-to-one support for family members and runs peer led family support groups.

It offers respite breaks for family members and also runs workshops on topics ranging from effective communication and understanding substance abuse to understanding relapse in recovering addicts.

Ms Green also spoke about the annual eight-week Bereavement Support Programme the network runs for those who have lost a relative due to addiction.

The final speaker was Jim O’Dwyer, Development Worker with the South East Regional Drugs & Alcohol Taskforce. He said the Taskforce is a collection of different agencies and sectors under the National Drugs Strategy.

It includes statutory bodies like the HSE, Probation Services and An Garda Síochána, community services like Suir Valley CBDI, services within the lived experience like the South East Regional Family Support Network and the Better Together online peer support service that operates seven days a week.

Suir Valley CBDI can be contacted at (051) 645775, (087) 9827669 or email: suirvalleycbdi@wstcys.ie

South East Regional Family Support Network can be contacted at (051) 357767, (086) 6045805 or email: info@serfsn.org.

For more information on the services supported by the South East Regional Drugs Taskforce log onto serdatf.ie.

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