Operational Actions

·         Recruit NWRDTF Co-ordinator, Development Worker and Administration Support.

·         Take account of operating costs (for example, rent, insurance, and financial and legal fees).

·         Expand membership of NWRDTF and sub-committees to encourage knowledge-based representation.

·         Source external providers with experience in community-based organisations to provide on-going training and support to the NWRDTF and its sub-committees to ensure they operate in an effective manner.

·         Establish and operate county-based and interest-based sub-committees of the NWRDTF. 

·         Promote the NWRDTF as the regional body for co-ordinating all illicit drug and underage drinking initiatives and as the central contact point in the region.

·         Review NWRDTF structures and validate initiatives and programmes.

Supply Reduction

·         Establish a sub-committee with the authority to initiate actions aimed at supply reduction.

·         Support the development of a referral scheme between the Garda Síochána and service providers for underage drinking and drug-related offenders.

Education

·         Provide public training and information sessions for community groups to assist in developing appropriate responses to local problems. 

·         Work closely with communities to identify their concerns and issues relating to illicit drug use and underage drinking and to assist in finding solutions.

·         Establish protocols to co-ordinate inter-agency activities (interventions in schools and communities).

·         Undertake a publicity campaign informing the public and community groups of the role and functions of the NWRDTF.

·         Design and maintain a single website for the NWRDTF, including sub-committees and special interest groups.

·         Initiate a film programme, aimed at transition year students, inviting submissions of films dealing with illicit drug use and underage drinking. 

·         Develop programmes aimed at pubs and night clubs to address the intertwined nature of illicit drug use and underage drinking. 

·         Identify effective methods of communication for individuals and communities responding to illicit drug use and underage drinking at the local level.

·         Develop and publish regionally relevant, local information on illicit drug use and underage drinking.

Treatment and Rehabilitation

·         Publish a North West Region handbook for those affected by illicit drug use and underage drinking, providing:

o        A step-by-step guide to accessing help locally;

o        Contact and service information at local/county level.

·         Help secure funding for programmes aimed at the reduction of illicit drug use and underage drinking.

·         Establish:

o        A small-grant fund to provide funding to evidence-based community and voluntary projects relating to illicit drug use and underage drinking;

o        A Youth Alcohol and Drug Service in Leitrim on a pilot basis;

o        A relapse-prevention programme to equip participants with a range of skills, including assertiveness, problem solving and creativity.

·         Support:

o        The establishment of a urine analysis protocol between the Probation and Welfare Service and HSE NW;

o        An increase in the number of support workers and level of resources available to those working with young people at risk and/or outside mainstream education;

o        Initiatives in the region that will impact on awareness, transmission, treatment and management of blood-borne viruses;

o        The provision of drug and alcohol counsellors to the Courts Service, in partnership with Probation and Welfare;

o        The development of residential and in-patient services (for example, an under-18s alcohol and drug detoxification and treatment facility);

o        The HSE NW in developing a Court Alcohol and Drug Programme in the region dedicated to under-18s.

Research

·         Conduct research into levels of misuse in the North West and provide access to up-to-date information.

·         Work with other agencies to identify more effective means of extracting and recording data on levels of misuse in the North West (for example the Coroners Court and HIPE).