AQW 4166/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 06/10/2022
Answered On Date: 12/10/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health for an update on his Department’s work to implement a flexible drugs and alcohol service as part of the Year 3 Action Plan, within the Interdepartmental Homelessness Action Plan.

Answer:

Protecting the health and wellbeing of homeless people in our society is a cross-government issue. The Complex Lives initiative, established by the Public Health Agency, Belfast City Council, and the NI Housing Executive is now up and running and providing support to those who are homeless and are at risk of related mental health and substance use issues in the Belfast area.

With a Multi-Disciplinary Team in place, it is providing a whole system, accountable care approach to supporting people experiencing multiple disadvantages with the aim of helping people engage, stabilise, and find a new way forward with their lives.

The initiative involves all key stakeholders – from health services to the Housing Executive, justice agencies including the PSNI and the community and voluntary sector. While the pilot has so far been working with 15-20 of the most complex cases, I hope that additional investment will help ensure that more at-risk individuals can be supported by the scheme in the coming period.

This is in addition to existing low threshold outreach services which are in place in all Health and Social Care Trust areas, and the related needle exchange and take-home naloxone programmes. The Strategic Planning Group, set up as part of the implementation of the new substance use strategy, is also currently co-designing a new whole-system substance use services delivery framework to address trends in increasing demand and complexity, current and future resource, gaps provision, service pressures, workforce issues and equity of access.