This article is from page 8 of the 2009-02-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
DESPITE the ever increasing scourge of drugs among young peo- ple, the Killaloe area has just one addiction counsellor who is paid to spend just one hour with one client a week.
The Killaloe/Ballina Family Re- source Centre gets funding for the hour of counselling but it is totally inadequate to deal with the problem, Tracey Doyle, a community worker FMW Oet tA KoMESY- BLOM
The resource centre offers counc- selling services from a voluntary councillor and a student counsellor but their paid counsellor is funded for just one hour per week by the Department of Family Affairs.
‘Addiction is affecting young peo- ple of about 15 upwards but we have to rely on the counsellors’ good will to give us hours for free. Otherwise we would not be able to offer any level of service,” said Tracey.
Other counsellors offer their time voluntarily, but don’t have the spe- cific qualification needed to counsel addicts.
“We don’t have figures for the number of people who are suffering addiction in the area but the numbers who are caught in possession are high, so considering the number who
aren’t caught, that’s a big figure.”
In her work with the Family Re- source Centre, Tracey makes contact with families when youngsters fall foul of the law because of drugs.
“We also talk to the probation and welfare officer in the court and we had considered putting it out to the judges that this service is avail- able but we couldn’t do it. We’d be swamped.”
Other areas that are not covered by counsellors with the specific quali- fications are domestic violence and child abuse.
“We’re hoping to make a very strong case for increased funding for the service for next year but, in the meantime, we have to play on the goodwill of our counsellors, who give a lot,” said Tracey.
And the need extends beyond Kil- laloe, the community worker pointed out.
“Go down the road to Scariff and there is no addiction counsellor at all. Yes, people have the option of going private but what happens to people when families can’t afford a private counsellor?”
The Killaloe/Ballina Family Re- source Centre is now up and running in its new premises on Main Street in Killaloe and counselling and other activities are going ahead again.