The Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) annual review for 2012 was launched on 6 September 2013 by the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton TD.1
MQI’s new facility, the Riverbank Centre, was officially opened by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD in 2012.
The New Communities Support Service provided one-to-one support to 239 service users. The largest number of new community clients were from Poland, accounting for 48% of clients seen.
MQI’s needle-exchange service recorded approximately 20,847 client visits in 2012. The report highlights a continuing high level of demand for homeless services; 76,500 meals were provided by the day and evening services and 3,331 health-care interventions were provided in 2012.
In 2012 MQI continued to provide the national prison-based addiction counselling service to 13 prisons, employing 27 counsellors. Demand for this service increased by 17% over the 2011 figure, with 10,558 individual counselling sessions and 3,668 group attendances recorded. The counselling service co-ordinates an inter-agency programme at the medical unit in Mountjoy for nine clients per eight-week programme. Seven courses were delivered during 2012, with 59 participants and a completion rate of 92%.
MQI, in association with the Midland Regional Drugs Task Force and the HSE, administer the Midlands Family Support and Community Harm Reduction Service, providing outreach and working with families of those actively using drugs in that task force region. The service provided 190 group sessions and 610 individual sessions in addition to 818 supportive phone calls in 2012. The harm reduction service provided an average of 289 needle exchanges each month during the year. The Midlands Traveller Specific Drugs Project worked with up to 26 clients at a time and engaged in 555 support sessions. Athlone Open Door Centre recorded 2,424 visits, provided 2,392 meals, and had 119 clients during 2012.
The services offered by MQI and the numbers of people accessing them in 2012 are shown below.
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1. Merchants Quay Ireland (2013) Annual review 2012. Dublin: MQI. Available at www.mqi.ie
