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The setting up of a Service User Forum on how to improve the service in 2021 in the immediate suburb of Ballymun and the Dublin North West Area

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I would like to share the level of gratitude the people of Ballymun convey when they are assisted with an issue. It is almost palpable in terms of how they remember you for taking the time out to listen to a particular woe and have given options towards reaching a way to solve the problem. That will always stay with me... long after I am gone.

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A positive learning gained  this year, centred around how much progress for our service users can be achieved when all the relevant Social Agencies in our work, eg DCC, HAP, Intreo, and Sli all work together with the idea of safety and security of the service user in mind.
Leadership, I have found is not always leading from the front...sometimes it a strong and supportive hand at the back of the proceedings, that also helps gets the deal over the line. Something I learnt also on the VMV course in Paris

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The Key Challenges are the lack of provision of affordable move on accommodations for single individuals in the northern suburbs of Dublin City.
And the challenge of accessing recovery-type accommodation for those moving out of Treatment Centres or Alcohol Residential units, where often times the only option is to take a single bed in a Homeless Hostel in the city centre
Ways of coping with such challenges have been to network and advocate and build up strong relationships with the pertinent decision makers in Statutory and Voluntary bodies involved in the Homeless Sector

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More suitable accommodation for single migrants

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Every small success looked even bigger in this period! We had move ons and good interaction with service users despite the pandemic. The use of technology and the communication with the team has been great

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The team reflected on how flexible and adaptable staff has been during the pandemic

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Keeping the clinics going, interacting with service users and maintaining the social distancing. Has been challenging at times to explain the regulation to service users also because of language barrier

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More opportunities for students living in DP and opportunity to help with transport for the service users moving in rural areas

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Great team work, we were all ready to help each other. We kept good communication and shared challenges. Has been great to see services working together during the pandemic with the opening of the isolation unit. Also... we had many service users moving on!!

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We agreed on how well we adapted to the new way of working, how we had to be creative to implement new ways of interacting with other services. We also want to outline how we were inspired by each other and encouraged to do our job keeping good communication among the team

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Has been more challenging to build and maintain rapports with service users due to the lack of face to face interaction, keep the service users motivation and providing support. Has been challenging for our service users to live in emergency accommodation and especially for single parents and for children living in DP

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We really want to secure permanent funding for our day centre. This is an amazing and much needed service in the city

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We want to celebrate how we have maintained contact with our service users and how our team have always been thinking of how to best provide our service to those most in need. The whole day centre has been reconfigured and our service delivery plan has now changed 3 times to ensure we are meeting our SU needs and we are complying and protecting through Government legislation and guidance. Drug use has increased among our SU group and we have been using innovative ways to maintain our naloxone training amongst our SU group. Infact 1 SU administered naloxone this week to another SU that had overdosed and successfully saved his life. This SU then came to Foyle Haven the next day and recounted the event and requested another naloxone pen. This really highlighted the positve impact our staff are having

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We wish to celebrate our actions to prevent social isolation amongst our service users during lock down. We increased visits & telephone contact, which included obtaining mobile phones for those without one. We educated our client group on the health risks associated with covid and the methods of staying safe. We also encouraged family members to take more of a supported role and for those deemed a higher risk of suffering the impacts of social isolation, we referred them onto our mental health counsellor for additional support. Despite some increase in substance intake amongst some of our SUs, due to enhanced support from staff none of our service users required crisis interventions nor did any of them contract covid.

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During this difficult time for everyone, we demonstrated again how we are excellent at adapting to change. Not only by continuing to support our service users with the limitations that the covid restrictions brought, but how well our team communicated with the mixture of office/remote working. Joint team working shone through as ourselves and our colleagues from Housing First pulled together to support each others service users. We maintained physical contact with service users through door step visits and meal deliveries which showed again our adaptability in the face of covid 19.

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To increase the level and range of publicity of the service with the other support services in Derry. This would lead to an increase in appropriate referrals and for statutory organisations to take us seriously.

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Due to the COVID-19 restrictions we were unable to visit our service users in the usual way. Not being able to enter homes hindered keyworking as doorstep visits often led to general chat's due to lack of confidentiality and even the weather. Accompanying our SU's to appointments stopped and relying on their feedback prevented follow up work being less effective. With other support organisations' staff being furloughed or working from home often meant our SU's only had our service to rely on thus preventing joint working and a reduction in the overall support to our service users. All this added to the stresses and strains of the role. This was overcome by the team coming together and going the extra mile. This with the support of the in house counsellor and nurse, enabled us to prioritise our most vulnerable for this additional support. We also provided mobile phones for those without a form of communication to help with their isolation and delivered meals to those shielding.

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The teamwork within Foyle Haven really shone through when lockdown commenced. The service re-modelled itself within 24 hours. This took LMT to have a clear plan, staff engagement and a willingness to go above and beyond for our service users. As this model was completely new, re-evaluation, reflective learning and constant change was a new way of working. Communication was keen to this, and active listening with staff and service users to ensure we were meeting the needs of everyone.

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Lockdown led to the day centre closing its doors and converting to an outreach service. Our service users who frequented the service daily experienced serious effects as a result of social isolation: increased alcohol intake, increased drug intake, suicidal ideation etc. To respond to this as a service we sourced phones for any SU who did not have a means of communication, we developed a COVID RA to allow limited numbers of SU into the centre with the highest need. Outreach visits were performed via doorstep and on an increased capacity. The day centre is now accommodation 6 SU at a time on a time slotted basis and again based on need, and the outreach element continues growing our reach in the community. The service delivery model has been completely re-modelled in order to respond to current circumstances.

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How do you think we can lead and influence the Irish government around tenancy sustainment and secure renting policy development in ireland.

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What advice would you give in relation to heightening the Government focus on addiction in Northern Ireland? As an organisation how best can we influence this locally?

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What makes a good leader?

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What can we do at an organizational and societal level to encourage more women into leadership roles, given women are traditionally the caregivers within family units?

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Ireland has become a highly desirable immigration country in the last decade, how important do you think is diversity in leadership?