CHAIRMANS FOREWARD
Coolmine’s Board members, management and staff are focused on delivering quality outcomes. Our vision is that everyone should have the opportunity to overcome addiction and live a fulfilled and productive life. In practical terms, this means being with family, friends, developing positive relationships, housing, job or in education and training. This is where our services are targeted.
In 2018, Coolmine worked with an increased number of clients and introduced additional outcome-focused services. Our service delivery includes outreach, assessment, stabilisation services with detox placements, contingency management, cannabis programmes, mental health services, community alcohol programmes, residential therapeutic community centres, through to aftercare and family support services.
Located in six sites, we work with people who are vulnerable, marginalised and often from dysfunctional backgrounds with complex medical and psychiatric needs. We see a prevalence of second and sometimes third generation families with addiction problems. Our work provides us with the opportunity to break that generational cycle of addiction, especially through working with mothers and their children.
RESEARCH
Coolmine has an established research culture and is committed to providing evidence of the impact of our services and interventions. The Trinity College Dublin longitudinal outcome research shows us that treatment and rehabilitation works for the individual, for the family, the community and for Ireland. Two years after treatment 72% of Coolmine clients remain illicit drug-free.
In 2018 we engaged research expertise to deliver further research projects. This work included the publication of an evaluation study by Trinity College Dublin, in collaboration with Griffith University Australia, on the Parents under Pressure (PuP) programme in Coolmine. The key findings include that 100% of participants were substance-free at programme completion. Coolmine will publish further research papers in the next two years.
QUALITY
We are committed to upholding the highest quality and standards in our service delivery. We have processes that ensure continuous improvement in our services and systems that ensure our clients voices and their feedback, are heard and actioned. Our Client Coordinator reports directly into Board meetings. In 2018, Coolmine was accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatry UK, with CCQI
accreditation having met the highest quality Therapeutic Community service standards in our residential services, Ashleigh House
and Coolmine Lodge. We are the only service of our kind in Ireland to achieve this recognition.
STRATEGIC PLAN
In 2018, Board members, management, staff, clients and key stakeholders collaborated to develop our Strategic Plan 2019-2022.
Governance Board members are appointed on the basis of skills, knowledge and experience. Risk and corporate and clinical governance is reviewed by our Audit and Risk Committee and overseen by Directors at every Board meeting. Progress on the implementation of the Strategic Plan is monitored at every Board meeting. An evaluation of the effectiveness of our Board and its Sub Committees’ was initiated in 2018 and will be reviewed at a Board away day in 2019.
A comprehensive staff training and development programme is scheduled throughout the year, including mentoring and leadership programmes for management. We comply with the triple lock of good governance recommended by the Charities Institute of Ireland and the Charity Regulator. We comply with the Code of Practice for Good Governance for the Voluntary and Charity sector in Ireland, the Statement of Recommended Practice for Accounting and Reporting by Charities (SORP) and Fundraising Principles.
DEMAND FOR SERVICE
Currently, we have sixty adults and up to seventeen babies living in our residential facilities in Coolmine. Every day an additional fifty adults come to our day services in Dublin city. We also work with over 120 people daily in our targeted outreach and community services. 697 drug-related deaths in Ireland per annum demands that Government urgently prioritise treatment and rehabilitation, as
committed to in the National Drugs Strategy 2017-2025, “to increase the number of rehabilitation beds and expand addiction services for pregnant and postnatal women” through a “whole-of-government response”. Coolmine provides the only mother and child residential rehabilitation service in Ireland. This caters for women with children and pregnant women who are seeking help with
addiction. We know that the most significant barrier for mothers to access treatment is the fear that they will be separated from
their children. Such barriers keep women and children in high-risk situations for longer.
We know that the treatment and rehabilitation services provided by Coolmine deliver tangible outcomes that are evidenced. Coolmine proposes to respond to the demand for its services by developing a 20 unit high risk family’s service in the mid-west region replicating
Coolmine Ashleigh House services. We call on Government and the Department of Health, Housing and Children to immediately
act to support Coolmine plans to deliver a second residential treatment centre outside Dublin for women with children and pregnant women who are seeking help with addiction. I would like to thank those who support Coolmine, our funders, donors and strategic
partners. On behalf of the Board, I also extend our thanks to our team in Coolmine. Our staff members are trained to the highest standards and carry out their work with dedication, respect and the capabilities to provide the highest possible quality standards.
Our thanks also to our Chief Executive who continues to be a strong and dynamic leader. Members of the Board of Coolmine
contribute their time and expertise on a voluntary basis and I thank each one for their guidance to me and their strong commitment to achieving Coolmine’s objectives.
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