COCAINE SERVICE OPEN DAY
On November 25th 2010, the Cocaine Service hosted an Open Day in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Outreach Project between 2-6pm. The purpose of the day was to promote the service within Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County and the wider community. Professionals from a variety of fields were invited to meet with the Team Leader of the service, the project worker, the counsellor and the holistic therapists. An ex-service user was also on hand to explain his story and how he found the service has helped him. Also helping out on the day was our student placement from IADT who as part of his Applied Psychology degree has been volunteering each week on the Cocaine Service. The Open Day was hosted in the building so that in addition to meeting with the staff, people could see where the work was being done.
Representatives from local psychiatric services; local hospitals; general practitioners; the Gardai; Probation Service; Legal Aid; and Employment Assistance Programmes were in attendance. Our understanding and experience has been that all these services encounter people experiencing problems with cocaine/crack cocaine use in their everyday work. The purpose behind inviting professionals in was to provide information about what we do and to offer services the opportunity to refer people on to us.
Our ethos, our work and our commitment to care was made explicit to all those who attended. We provided the opportunity for people to ask questions and see for themselves what DROP Cocaine Service is all about. Everyone who attended was provided with a service handout detailing the work and history of the Cocaine Service – this document is available to download from this website.
The Open Day provided the opportunity to create and maintain links with other relevant services in the area and we are pleased to say that the day was a success. In these times it is fundamental that organisations providing a service to the public be transparent in their work and be open to providing information, support and advice to anyone who may seek it; from the point of view of the Cocaine Service in DROP, we are happy to be part of that process.
HANDOUT