Home > Minister Shortall launches Report on Responding to Benzodiazepine use in Ballymun.

[Department of Health] Minister Shortall launches Report on Responding to Benzodiazepine use in Ballymun. (21 Jun 2011)

External website: http://health.gov.ie/blog/press-release/minister-s...

Ms. Roisin Shortall TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Primary Care launched a report today on responding to benzodiazepine use in Ballymun, and announced her intention to introduce an initiative to tackle over-prescribing.

The report outlines the operation and development of the GP-Community Partnership Addiction Project over its first three years of implementation (September 2006-September 2009). The GP-Community Partnership Addiction Project is managed by the Ballymun Family Practice and funded by the Ballymun Local Drugs Task Force.

The main aim of the GP-Community Addiction Project is to develop services for patients with benzodiazepine problems that present in primary care. The model proposed was that GPs in the practice would by supported by an addiction counsellor who would be integrated into each practice. 124 patients of the Ballymun Family Practice attended the Addiction Counselling Service during the period January 2007 to December 2010.

The report found that an addiction counselling service is an effective strategy to complement existing general practitioner practices and recommended that the delivery of a counselling service be considered as a model for future pilot projects.

The project evolved from one that primarily envisaged meeting the needs of clients with a benzodiazepine addiction to one that now also has the ability to address other addiction issues that may present. The Ballymun Local Drugs Task Force will continue to monitor the project and its capacity to respond to clients presenting to GPs with addiction problems.


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