PARENTS UNITE TO GET HELP FOR ADDICTED CHILDREN

When Patrick - not his real name - appeared in court accused of stealing
bottles of butane gas, his father told the judge that he had been admitted
to Sligo general hospital 46 times suffering from gas inhalation. He was
not yet 18.

His father, John - also not his real name - said that over the seven years
of his son's addiction his parents had tried to get suitable treatment for
him, but none was available in the North Western Health Board region.
Eventually he found the Aisling addiction centre in Kilkenny, and his son
was admitted there, paid for by the NWHB. "It was great, but he was not in
long enough," he said.

After a number of lapses, Patrick has now been clean for three months and
John is optimistic that he has freed himself from substance abuse.

However, his experience led him to help establish a group for parents of
addicts in the area, and they have been campaigning for treatment
facilities for their children.

"The only thing we have in common is we have children who are addicted to
one substance or another. About a year ago a child of 13 died from inhaling
butane gas in the town.

"There does not seem to be heroin sold on the streets here, but it could be
just a matter of time.

"I tried to get Patrick admitted to St Columba's [the local psychiatric
hospital] but they kept letting him out. The people who often ended up
looking after him were the gardai. They kept him in cells lots of times
when they shouldn't have. I went to the [Garda] superintendent and he was
very good. They said in court he was not a criminal, the only thing he ever
did was steal gas bottles."

Local councillor Declan Bree has been in touch with the health board on
behalf of the parents, and told it they wanted a detoxification centre in
Sligo, a treatment centre for adolescents in the region, along with
residential and day-care facilities, and an aftercare service.

The group also felt there were not enough counsellors, those who were there
did not have sufficient training and there was little or no counselling for
other members of the family. They asked the health board to assist with
education and training on addiction, especially to solvent abuse, for
gardai, GPs and teachers.

"We know there's nothing in place and we don't expect it overnight," said
John. "We want to work with the health board and get things in place.
There's no point in pointing the finger at anyone, we just want to work
together to gets things set up."

In a statement the North Western Health Board said: "We acknowledge that
this is an evolving issue and to that end we have employed Drugs Strategies
Co-ordinators [one in Donegal and one in Sligo/Leitrim] to organise and
spearhead the board's response. In addition, two drug support workers [with
a specialist brief for substance misuse] are currently taking up positions
with the board."

The statement added that the board's addiction counsellors provide helpline
facilities and liaised with GPs and others. Each case was dealt with on an
individual basis, it said. It acknowledged that from time to time the board
used places outside its own board area for residential care.

John is pleased that the board is taking the problem seriously, but
concerned about the pace. "Patrick first started sniffing when he was 11.
He had the usual problems of a teenager growing up, but the addiction
blurred all that and he couldn't work it through. We couldn't get help for him.

"Alcohol abuse is well catered for, but not this addiction. We're angry
that he suffered so much, that he missed out on his education, that he
slept out in ditches. We hope he's over it now, but there are other kids
out there."