Home > Coolmine launches new strategy, 2016–2018.

Lyons, Suzi (2016) Coolmine launches new strategy, 2016–2018. Drugnet Ireland, Issue 57, Spring 2016, p. 25.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Drugnet 57)
1MB

The Tánaiste, Joan Burton TD, launched Coolmine Therapeutic Community’s (CTC’s) new strategy for 2016 to 2018 in the offices of Dublin City Council on 16 December 2015. 1   Acknowledging the impressive amount of work that had gone into the development of the strategy, she observed that at the heart of a successful plan is interagency co-operation in health, housing and social services.  She specifically mentioned CTC’s Parents under Pressure Programme at Ashleigh House, the only family residential service in Ireland. 

 

Alan Connolly, chairman of Coolmine, and Pauline McKeown, CEO, also spoke, outlining the process of developing, and the objectives of, the new strategy.2 The new strategy contains 12 objectives under two overarching strategic aims.

 

Growth and innovation

  • Develop a drug-free prison therapeutic community to increase the service provision for prisoners with problematic substance misuse issues in the Irish Prison Service.
  • Scope out and develop the expansion of CTC’s mother and child services, including further programmes for non-stabilised pregnant women and the Parents under Pressure programme.
  • Develop services to enhance treatment access, decrease early leavers and manage crises during lapse/relapse.
  • Explore the potential for further non-residential community-based alcohol treatment services.
  • Review and enhance partnership agreements to further increase access to treatment and rehabilitation services, support project expansion and maximise after-care supports nationally.
  • Invest in CTC’s established research culture to identify opportunities that contribute both national and internationally.

 

Capacity and sustainability

  • Identify and invest in staff and management structures.
  • Conduct an annual review of governance arrangements, including clinical governance, charity regulation, and fund-raising principles.
  • Develop comprehensive IT systems.
  • Develop an annual maintenance plan for each service that reflects best practice in health and safety, is cost-effective and deliverable.
  • Devise and deliver a communications strategy to enhance the national profile of the organisation and to secure CTC’s position as a treatment and rehabilitation centre of excellence.
  • Develop and implement a three-year fund-raising strategy incorporating realistic income targets, sustainable growth and targeting opportunities locally, nationally and internationally. 

Graduates of the Coolmine programme, Ann Marie Sweeney and Charles Lane, spoke eloquently about their journey with Coolmine and how engaging with treatment had helped to turn their lives round. Ann Marie is heading to college and Charles is now the client co-ordinator at Coolmine. 

 

Further information can be found at www.coolmine.ie

 

  1. Coolmine Therapeutic Community (2015) Coolmine strategic plan 2016–2018. Dublin: Coolmine Therapeutic Community. https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/24927/
  2. Videos of the speakers can be found at http://www.drugs.ie/multimedia/video/launch_coolmine_strategic_plan_2016_20182
Item Type
Article
Publication Type
Irish-related, Open Access, Article
Drug Type
All substances
Issue Title
Issue 57, Spring 2016
Date
May 2016
Page Range
p. 25
Publisher
Health Research Board
Volume
Issue 57, Spring 2016
EndNote

Repository Staff Only: item control page