During 2015:
Addiction services
• The SAOR (Support, Ask and Assess, Offer Assistance, and Refer) one-day screening and brief intervention training programme was delivered to a total of 540 staff.
• Additional residential treatment and rehabilitation places, more needle-exchanges and the Naloxone Project were supported by an additional funding allocation of €2.1m. 309,862 needles were provided under the Pharmacy Needle Exchange Programme.
• A Naloxone (antidote to reverse effects of opioid drugs in the event of overdose) demonstration project was established as part of Overdose Prevention Strategy.
• 3,421 calls and emails were dealt with by the Drugs and Alcohol Helpline.

Tobacco Free
Cigarette smoking is the single biggest preventable cause of ill health and premature death. Findings from the Healthy Ireland survey in October indicated that cigarette smoking has dropped to 19% (daily smokers) or 23% (occasional smokers) from 29% in 2007.

The Tobacco Control Framework continued to be implemented:
• A new QUIT support service was launched with a new support team of counsellors available over the phone, by email, live web-chat, via Twitter or Facebook.
• A new interactive website was introduced with an online QUITplan.
• An estimated 220,000 quit attempts were made, an increase of 47% from 2014.
• Smoking prevalence dropped by 70,000 people.
• Cessation Support 11,949 smokers received support from a cessation counsellor, an increase of 28.4% from 2014; 1,279 healthcare professionals were trained through 131 training programmes; 30 staff (14 from mental health services) were trained to provide intensive tobacco cessation specialist support to smokers.
• 540 tobacco test purchase inspections were carried out with an overall compliance rate of 83%.
• Achievement of Tobacco Free policy implementation across a number of targeted sites: 99% primary care; 39% mental health approved units and 24% mental health residential services; 15% disability services; 49% older people services.