Republican News · Thursday 13 February 1997

Dublin Drugs Conference reports by Rita O'Reilly

Focus on women addicts

A single sex approach to drug treatment services is very important, said Joan Byrne of SAOL, a pilot project supporting 15 women to rebuild their lives away from drug addiction. ``The women in the SAOL project said they couldn't have achieved what they did if men had been involved too.''

Women drug users in areas like the North Inner City of Dublin live in ``fractured and severely damaged communities'' and have to cope with ``extreme social isolation and disadvantage,'' she said. Poor housing, coping with pregnancy, unemployment, low nutrition, extreme stress, educational disadvantage, domestic abuse, past sexual abuse and poor health services are just some of the issues they face. Women take on the burden of care in their families and communities and a response to them had to be developed at both the individual and community level.

Governor of Mountjoy Prison John Lonergan told a Conference workshop that drug addiction is only a minor part of all the problems daily facing the people who end up in Mountjoy. ``Low self esteem is probably the biggest factor and is very evident in women prisoners.''

``I see all the problems of society, all the ostracisation and hypocrisy and belittling and all the other wrongs manifesting themselves snugly in the Women's Prison in Mountjoy'', he said.

Lonergan said 550 women come into Mountjoy every year, most of them mothers and most unable to cope themselves. ``Again, you have to look at the background: the fact is women in prison in Ireland have been horrifically abused by men, used by men and subjected to huge levels of violence.''

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