SAOIRSE, the Limerick-based addiction treatment organisation, marked two massive milestones with the official opening of the new centre paid for by JP McManus and the launch of a pilot treatment programme for people who are addicted to gambling and gaming, catering for clients as young as 14.
The new centre was bought for the service by the JP McManus Pro-Am Fund at a cost of nearly half a million euro and means that Saoirse can now begin expanding the services it offers.
A non-residential, free treatment service for people addicted to drink, drugs, and gambling in the Mid West, Saoirse will now also be one of a number of HSE-approved pilot schemes nationally for the treatment of people addicted to gaming.
Since two volunteers first went out to buy a van-load of chairs from a company that was closing in 2012, Saoise has offered treatment programmes to almost 3,500 addicts across the region.
Last year alone, the service had 380 clients, 187 crisis interventions, and 66 short term interventions for people – helping 633 individual people.
Said service administrator, Tim Evans, “demand is always very strong for all of our services. We know there is a very big need for the new pilot programme to help those addicted to online gaming and we are now setting up that service and opening it to the public.”
Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Wellbeing, and the Drugs Strategy, Colm Burke, performed the official opening.
Minister Burke said that there are “new challenges” ahead as highlighted in a just-published Health Research Board report “as regards a new generation of people who are getting addicted to, particularly, cocaine. We need to fast track services to deal with that issue. We also need to fast-track education to highlight the risk that people are taking in just experimenting with drugs.”
Speaking about the move to the new building in Clare Street, Mr Evans said that Saoirse is “so very grateful to the JP McManus Pro Am Fund. This makes a world of difference in terms of our future planning and in terms of the therapeutic environment we can offer.
“Saoirse couldn’t survive without the support we have had since we started from the HSE, Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership (LEDP), Limerick City and County Council, and now the JP McManus fund. And not forgetting the Redemptorists, EI in Shannon, and all of the hundreds of individuals and local organisations that have fundraised for us.”
