Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) is a national voluntary agency providing services for homeless people and those that use drugs. There are 22 MQI locations in 12 counties in the Republic of Ireland (see Figure 1). MQI aims to offer accessible, high-quality, and effective services to people dealing with homelessness and addiction in order to meet their complex needs in a non-judgemental and compassionate way. This article highlights services provided by MQI to people who use drugs in Ireland in 2019.1

Addiction services

Health Promotion Unit

This unit provides people who use drugs with information about the risks associated with drug use and the means to minimize such risks. MQI offers them a pathway into treatment and the possibility of living a life without drugs. The main focus is on reducing the harms associated with injecting drug use; fostering the motivation to become abstinent; and giving advice on HIV, hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus infection prevention. In 2019, some 3,140 individuals used the service, an increase of 14.5% compared with 2018.

Family Support Group

MQI runs a Family Support Group (FSG), which meets every week and provides a forum where parents of those who use drugs, as well as other close relatives and friends, are offered support and advice on a range of issues. Participants provide support for each other and the group is continually open to new members. The weekly FSG meetings had been linked to the National Family Support Network (defunct since April 2021), which had offered an opportunity to raise issues at a national level.

Midlands services

Drug and Alcohol Treatment Supports Project

MQI’s Drug and Alcohol Treatment Supports (DATS) team provides a community-based drug and alcohol treatment support service for individuals over 18 years of age and their families in the Midlands area (Counties Longford, Westmeath, Laois, and Offaly). Each county has a dedicated drug and alcohol worker to coordinate the care of individuals and families experiencing problems due to drug and/or alcohol use. In this region, MQI saw a total of 787 clients in 2019, an 11.5% increase on 2018.

Rehab and detox treatment services

The St Francis Farm (SFF) Rehabilitation Service offers a 13-bed therapeutic facility with a 14-week rehabilitation programme set on a working farm in Tullow, Co. Carlow. At SFF, MQI provides a safe environment where service users can explore the reasons for their drug use, adjust to life without drugs, learn effective coping mechanisms, and make positive choices about their future.

The 10-bed residential detoxification service at SFF delivers methadone and combined methadone/benzodiazepine detoxes for both men and women. The detox activity programme includes individual care planning, therapeutic group work, psychoeducational workshops, fitness training, and farm-work activities.

At High Park, Drumcondra, Co. Dublin, MQI operates a 14-week residential programme in a 13-bed facility. The emphasis is on assisting clients to gain insight into the issues that underpin their problematic drug use and on developing practical measures to prevent relapse, remain drug-free, and sustain recovery. In 2019, the total number of admissions across High Park and SFF was 181.

Source: MQI annual review, 2017

(1) Dublin; (2) Co. Wicklow; (3) St Francis Farm, Co. Carlow; (4) Cork Prison; (5) Limerick Prison; (6) Co. Offaly; (7) Co. Westmeath; (8) Portlaoise, Co. Laois; (9) Co. Longford; (10) Castlerea Prison, Co. Roscommon; (11) Loughran House, Co. Cavan; (12) Leixlip, Co. Kildare.

Figure 1: MQI locations in the Republic of Ireland 

Prison-based services

Addiction Counselling Service and Mountjoy Drug Treatment Programme

MQI, in partnership with the Irish Prison Service, delivers a national prison-based Addiction Counselling Service (ACS) aimed at prisoners with drug and alcohol problems in 11 Irish prisons. This service provides structured assessments, one-to-one counselling, therapeutic group work, and multidisciplinary care, in addition to release-planning interventions with clearly defined treatment plans and goals. Services offered include:

• Brief interventions
• Motivational interviewing and motivational enhancement therapy
• A 12-step facilitation programme
• Relapse prevention and overdose reduction
• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Harm reduction approaches
• Individual care planning and release planning.

A total of 2,371 unique clients were supported through in-prison counselling in 2019.
 

1 Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) (2020) Merchants Quay Ireland annual review 2019. Dublin: MQI.
https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/33295/