In 2020, Peter McVerry Trust supported over 7,800 unique individuals across our services. Over the course of the year we supported over 1,300 people into housing, our Housing With Supports team made a total of 50,000 home supports visits to social housing tenants across Ireland, and by the end of the year we had provided over 600 permanent homes to people in need.

Addiction and recovery services

Due to the impact of Covid-19, the provision of some of our drug treatment services and supports were curtailed in 2020. However, our Residential Community Detox was fully operational for 6 months of the year, while our Residential Stabilisation service remained operational throughout the year.

Our service at Berkeley Street in Dublin was impacted by the restrictions on face-to-face meetings which meant that normal supports and counselling sessions moved online or were carried out on an individual basis by telephone or appointment, in line with the active public health guidance at the time.

In 2020, Peter McVerry Trust took on the management of two existing services which operate in the addiction sphere. The first of these, Ait Linn, is based in Ballymun in Dublin and is a free confidential service offering education and recovery for people who are affected by alcohol. The service is available to individuals over the age of 18 who are either affected by their own drinking or by a family members’ drinking.

The second service which came under the management of Peter McVerry Trust in 2020 is ARAS (Abbey Regional Addiction Service). This is a community-based service that provides treatment and rehabilitation support to individuals and families affected by drug and alcohol misuse. This service has a catchment area of Kildare and the West Wicklow Region.

In 2020, Peter McVerry Trust was able to increase the number of drug-free bed spaces ringfenced for people who have completed treatment programmes. The number of bed spaces increased by 20%.