THE RISE IN men seeking treatment for heroin addiction is “alarming”, the largest addiction centre in the south of the country has said.

In its annual report, the Tabor Lodge Group says that one-third of the people they treat are women. This is in contrast to when the centre opened 25 years ago, when the patients were exclusively male.

Pat Coughlan, chairman of the group, said that they had taken thousands of calls last year.

This year alone we fielded 14,000 calls in relation to treatment. But the worrying element and the challenge for the next 25 years is how we deal with some of the unique problems now emerging where addiction to multiple substances is becoming more prevalent.

“For example, of the 219 patients admitted to Tabor Lodge in 2013, 139 were males and 80 female. Of those, 155 were primarily for alcohol abuse but 50 were for the abuse of other drugs.”

Women, in particular, have typically a more complicated route to negotiate, the group says, with 52% having at least one child.

Clinical director of the group Mick Divine said the challenges for the future were substantial.

“Funding is being cut, private health insurance numbers are still dropping and addictions are becoming more widespread and complicated. This means we have to adapt to the needs of the patients and find new ways of coping with these substantial problems over the coming years.”

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