Sankalpa is a holistic centre that works with people who are seeking support to detox off methadone.
Meeting Room – a film about Concerned Parents Against Drugs
March 30th, 2013
New Stabilization Service in Sankalpa
March 16th, 2013
Is there a way out of this clinic?
March 1st, 2013
Useful Apps for within Addiction and Mental Health.
February 2nd, 2013
Sankalpa embraces the Community Reinforcement Approach
November 4th, 2012
Turning point is a new stabilization service in Sankalpa for anyone from the Finglas Cabra area seeking support to stop using illicit drugs and manage on their prescribed medications. I will be up dating this post with more information over the weekend.
Last week some of the team from Sankalpa, Dublin Simon Community, the Tolko River Project and Tiglin TCI in Wicklow, had the pleasure of taking part in a two-day training workshop in the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA), run by Gerry Ryan project manager at the Tolko River Project. Gerry who was an early advocate of this approach was one of their first to become an accredited trainer of CRA in Ireland.
The Community Reinforcement Approach is a comprehensive behavioral program for treating substance misuse problems. It is based on the belief that environmental contingencies can play a powerful role in encouraging or discouraging drinking or drug use. Consequently, it utilizes social, recreational, familial, and vocational reinforcers to assist clients in the recovery process. Its goal is to make a lifestyle of recovery and being drug free, more rewarding than drug consumption and dependence.
The two days training was a huge success, not just in terms of the learning, but the opportunity to work with other professionals from organisations with a great track record of innovation and quality service delivery. It was nice to hear some positive feedback on our own service Sankalpa, in particular their interest in knowing more about herbal medicine.
On Friday Dessie Ellis TD for Dublin North West and long term community activist in Finglas and Ballymun, dropped by to say hello to the participants of Sankalpa and hear their concerns in relation to the proposed cuts to CE. Dessie made the participants feel at ease and everyone had an opportunity to express their concerns about the cuts to drug services, which are so badly needed in our communities. There was an interesting discussion in relation to methadone and whether Suboxone an alternative treatment to methadone such be considered. Many of the participants expressed concerns about how long people end up on methadone and how trapped they can feel on it. Dessie was very keen to hear the stories from the participants, as he said there was a debate going on in Europe in relation to methadone and its effectiveness. Services like Sankalpa are an essential part of the treatment and rehabilitation cycle, in that it offers people a way of of addiction and off drugs completely. But as Tom highlighted ‘Education is the key to unlocking their way out of addiction. Its easy to remove the drugs and do several detoxes, but its through education that you can make recovery sustainable’.
The meeting with Dessie has been part of Sankalpa’s increasing awareness campaign about the need for more effective rehabilitation services. Over the recent months we have met with John Lyons TD, Pascal O Donoghue TD and Roisin Shortall TD and Junior Minister with responsibility for the National Substance Misuse Strategy.
Why not check out our new podcast, now available on iTunes! At the moment there are two podcasts already recorded. Tune in for more interested conversations with Dave and Tom where we will be exploring the role of community development in Sankalpa with Lisa. We also hope to bring you an interview with Svetlana our yoga teacher about her experience of working with people in recovery. We will be conducting interview with various people living and working in the Finglas and Cabra communities.
Pascal Donoghue TD for Dublin Central visited Sankalpa recently as part of our political awareness campaign. Drug services have not aways spent enough time telling the story of the work they do. Too often we take for granted that people understand the work of drug rehabilitation services. We just get on with the work and believe that people are aware of what we do. However this is not always the case and more and more services need to improve their relations with the media, politicians and other key stake holders. We can not take for granted anymore that our politicians know what we are doing, we have a responsibility to ensure that they know. Its a two way process, as the we can educate the politicians as to the work we do and the challenges we face.
Pascal arrived on his bicycle after getting lost on the Ballyboggan road. However I was impressed with his mode of transport as a cyclist myself. Pascal was friendly and warm to our service users and staff and after a brief meeting with myself, Pascal met with a number of participants to listen to their fears and anxieties around the cuts to CE and social welfare benefits. The session was very engaged and Pascal was reminded by one of the participants ‘remember, we vote now!’. And so goes out the reminder to all politicians that Sankalpa is raising the political conscientious of service users from Finglas and Cabra. Too often politicians think that once their elected they can do what they want. Sankalpa would like to promote a participatory democracy. A democracy that is built on genuine participation. Too often our citizens are excluded after the general election has ended and the votes have been counted. Lets start changing that and call our politicians to account to us the voters on a regular basis. Lets get more politically active!
Dr. Tom O Brien
Manager of Sankalpa
Niki De Brucker (22 years old), Kirsten Theeuwes (20 years old), Marijke Dirks (21 years old) and Iris Ceulemans (20 years old) who are all from Belgium visited Sankalpa as part of a visit to addiction rehabilitation services in Dublin. The students are studying social studies and wanted to get a wider european perspective on rehabilitation. They really enjoyed the visit and we enjoyed a gift of the world famous Belgian chocolates! We hope they return!
John Lyons Labour TD for Dublin North West dropped into visit Sankalpa on the Friday 20th January 2012. John met with the participants and staff of Sankalpa, where a lively discussion took place in relation to the 66% cut to the training and materials budget of CE schemes following budget 2012. John was impressed with the service and made a commitment to support Sankalpa in these tough economical times. John who is a teacher by profession could see the value of services like Sankalpa in supporting parents who are addicts, as he saw the direct impact of addiction on the children of addicts in the school where he taught. ’If we don’t support addiction recovery programs today, we will simply pass on the problem onto the next generation of young people’ according to Dr. Tom O Brien, manager of Sankalpa. During the visit John was interviewed for our new podcast, which is now available on iTunes.
Dear Roisin Shortal TD, John Lyons TD and Paschal Donohoe TD,
As a service constituent of yours, I am writing to ask you to vote against the measures contained in Budget 2012 relating to the savage cuts to FAS CE programmes.
FAS Special CE Drug Rehab Projects, which underpin the national drugs rehab strategy, are being savagely attacked by a 66% cut in operational and training funding. It is proposed to cut the materials and training budget from €1500 to just €500 per participant per annum. This is the money that provides heat, light, telephone, stationery, education materials, etc, etc. Crucially, it also pays for progression training for people engaged in a rehabilitation process.
In addition to these cuts, lone parents attempting to address their drug addiction will have their entitlement to part payment of another DSP discontinued – as will those who are in receipt of an illness payment. These measures take no account of the cost of childcare or disability and are unfair, unequal and simply cruel. It is a known fact that incentives to engage in rehabilitation increase take-up levels and subsequently everyone wins – the client, the community, their family and wider society.
The drug problem has not gone away. We see the evidence of the devastation that drugs cause to individual, families and the wider community every day. On the same day as the cuts in the Budget were announced, the latest figures from the Health Research Board (HRB) National Drug-Related Deaths Index (NDRDI) were released showing the number of heroin-related deaths had increased by 20% in 2009 and a further report from the Mercy University Hospital Cork stated that 47% of psychiatric patients admitted had a substance misuse problem. According to micro research study figures released at a conference this morning in Ballybough, Dublin, the use of crack-cocaine, crystal meth, mephedrone, alcohol and skunk are rising at an alarming rate.
Since 2008 drug projects have experienced cut after cut after cut and there is simply nothing left to give.
Please use your common sense and do not vote in favor of this proposal.
Regards
Dr. Tom O Brien
Manager
Sankalpa
When a rehabilitation service takes a student on placement there is always a risk attached. Our recent experience with Aisling, Amy, David and Jennifer from DCU reminded us of how important it is to take risks and involve students with fresh ideas, sparking imaginations and creativity that turns heads in the development of our services. Over a period of two months Aisling, Amy, David and Jennifer worked with a group of participants from Sankalpa through the medium of visual communications to produce a short film entitled “Recovery please” that we think you will enjoy and share with your friends.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Eugene Finane who died suddenly on Monday 16th May 2011. Eugene was on our team for a year and was due to start a new role as a project support worker. He ran a men’s group in Sankalpa with great skill, compassion and professionalism. He had just completed the Merchants Quay course on addiction and was hungry to learn more and to help others in what ever way he could. He was also very involved with the support group “Unmarried and Seperated Parents of Ireland (www.uspi.ie). May he rest in peace.
Recently I gave a presentation to the participants and staff of Sankalpa on the meaning of Sankalpa. I hope you will take the time to look at this short presentation as Sankalpa is a way of being that we can all learn and practice! By Dr. Tom O Brien, Manager, Sankalpa
follow: RSS