Dublin People - Vital services fear funding cuts

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Vital services fear funding cuts

Monday, 24 March 2008

Concerns have been expressed that cuts in funding from the HSE to a number of community based organisations are seriously affecting the ability of local groups in socially deprived areas to operate their services.
It has been claimed that cuts in funding by the HSE this year, as well as their staff recruitment freeze, have meant that a drug treatment programme and youth mental health service in Ballyfermot are now seriously under-resourced.
Lack of funds for youth mental health services at the BASE centre and claims of understaffing at the Aisling drug treatment centre are just some of the vital social services being affected in the area because of the cuts.
The BASE centre in Ballyfermot offers a wide range of different services to the local community including youth outreach programmes, childcare services and arts and new media courses.
However, according to Sharon Kelly, manager of the Youth Mental Health programme at BASE, funding from the HSE for the project was cut from over e106,000 to e86,000 this year and she fears that funding may cease altogether next year.
Sharon pointed out that the HSE has been and continues to be supportive of BASE and is committed to funding for a number of other services besides their youth mental health programme.

However, she said: “But they [the HSE] have found themselves in a situation at a local level of having to cut our funding by e20,000.
“They are also saying it is highly unlikely that we will have our youth health service and other supports of around e106,000 per annum next year.
“That would mean that we would have a serious difficulty in delivering adolescent mental health, general health and sexual health services to young people.”
In addition, she said that Ballyfermot suffered from serious social problems, having one of the highest youth suicide rates in the country and exceptionally high numbers of lone parents.
BASE has been lauded by local and national politicians and the media but the organisation says it will be powerless to provide its essential services to tackle the serious social problems in the area if funding is not forthcoming.
The Aisling Clinic in Ballyfermot, which runs a methadone treatment centre, now has the longest waiting list for services in the country. A local source claimed that three nurses in the area of addiction services had left the clinic recently and had not been replaced.
The source further claimed that that only one health worker was now running the needle exchange programme in the area after another worker who had left the service had not been replaced.
However, the HSE has denied both of these claims.
At a meeting of Dublin City Council recently, Cllr Louise Minihan (SF) described the HSE’s decision to cut the funding of the youth mental health services in the BASE centre as an “absolute disgrace”.
Commenting on the staff situation at the Aisling Centre, Dublin South TD (SF) Aengus O’Snodaigh said: “It is absolutely crazy that the HSE is not replacing people, nurses in particular, and drug outreach workers in an area hardest hit by the drugs crisis.
Deputy O’Snodaigh said the long waiting lists for drug treatment in the area was creating to a black market for methadone as family members of addicts were desperately trying to source the drug substitute for their loved ones.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said there had been no diminution to the staff nursing complement at the Aisling Centre.
“One of the staff nurses submitted his notice in January 2008, and approval has been given by the HSE to the replacement of this post and this is currently in hand. Significant work and successes have taken place over 2007 in reducing the waiting lists in the Aisling Clinic and this work will be ongoing.
“In relation to the needle exchange, all scheduled needle exchange programmes at the Aisling clinic are continuing on a regular basis and are attended by two workers from the HSE on each occasion.”
The spokesperson declined to comment on funding for the BASE centre.

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