Some of you may be aware that between January and May 2021 a series of Dual Diagnosis(Co-existence of Mental Health and Substance Use issues) Awareness workshops and Train the Trainers workshops were delivered to people and organisations living and working within Dublin North East Inner City by the NEIC(North East Inner City) in collaboration with The Dublin North, North East Recovery College (DNNERC).
The evaluation of this intervention was over all positive in terms of awareness impact and interagency connection. One of the aspirations of people and groups in the process was that they could move to another level of capacity building, where groups would work collaboratively together to create a joined-up response to Dual Diagnosis within the community. Another thing that stood out, 'Dual Diagnosis as a term is not useful, it brings more stigma' & ' we need a one stop knowledge base in the community about how to respond to dual diagnosis, so that anyone working with people will be able to respond and also know where to next.
In partnership with The Recovery Academy Ireland we are looking to establish an open dialogue community forum, comprising all stakeholders that have a vested interest or are affected by dual diagnosis in the community. Stakeholders should include people with lived experience, it is crucial that this cohort is well represented as they are experts by experience. Other stakeholders should include family members, statutory services, community services, ancillary services and peripherally involved services.
Through the establishment of the community forum, we hope to explore existing capacity for service providers to respond to dual diagnosis. The forum should inform us of what Service providers need to develop, so that they can enhance capacity and ultimately develop an integrated care pathway within the community for people who are affected by the co-existence of mental health and substance use issues.
We are planning on having a community open dialogue forum in the Ballybough Community Centre on the 26th October at 10am.
We encourage anyone with an interest in developing a community response to the complex issue of substance use and mental health issues to come along to this meeting. I have attached a copy of the flyer, in both jpeg and pdf format so that it can be forwarded, shared on social media or printed. Please feel free to extend the invitation to any contacts you feel may have an interest in attending, most importantly, people with lived experience.
Please register your attendance at the link below
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