Drug related Deaths

21 Sep 2005

The first Service of Commemoration and Hope in February 2000 highlighted the fact that although we knew that a lot of our children were dying from drug related causes, it was impossible to obtain accurate information on exact numbers of drug related deaths.

Without this information it is difficult to develop services to both support families dealing with the death of a loved one through drug use and to identify means of prevention of such tragedies.

The Family Support Network approached Dr. Joe Barry, Medical Advisor to the National Drugs Strategy Team to look at the recording of drug related deaths. Discussions followed with a number of government departments including Health and Children; Justice, Equality and Law Reform as well as Dr Barry to develop a proposal for the Health Research Board to set up of an index of drug related deaths which will look behind the death certificate.

On Sept 26th the project will be launched in Ozanam House, Mountjoy Square West. For further details contact Sadie.

The Network will ensure that all the sensitivities around this issue are to the fore in the publication of any data.