Addiction and Drug-related Deaths

Part of Private Members' Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly am 12:45 pm ar 23 Ebrill 2024.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Carál Ní Chuilín Carál Ní Chuilín Sinn Féin 12:45, 23 Ebrill 2024

The Member is right, and that is what I said at the start. All those professionals, be it in health, housing, education or the community, are really compassionate, but they are not equipped. The saying that we all live in and rely on each other's shadows is really evident, but we need somewhere. We need a place where it actually says, "You can come here and we can try to help", and that pathway and references to all the other supports that are there will be very clear.

The other elephant in the room is that we are a post-conflict generation — now into three and going into four generations. We need to take a trauma-informed approach to addiction. I have seen the grandchildren of people who have been through the conflict, and who lost members of their family during the conflict, and I cannot dismiss the coincidence. Addiction is prevalent right throughout the family, and it seems that, the bigger the conflict and the bigger its impact, the more likely addiction is to become almost hereditary.

I thank all groups. For us, it is about where the need is. Órlaithí, as a Member for West Belfast, and I, as a Member for North Belfast, are going to argue for Belfast, but we want a needs-based approach to be taken to every available resource.