Fiona McCabe, Director of Leonard Cheshire Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is in the midst of a spiraling public health challenge with experts highlighting that around 35,000 people (2% of population) are living with Alcohol Related Brain Injury (ARBI).
People rarely think about the harm alcohol can cause to their brain yet ARBI occurs as a result of brain damage related to chronic alcohol consumption. In contrast with the rest of the UK, there is a marked increase in the number of people regularly consuming alcohol in Northern Ireland.
The shortage of local treatment services available to patients diagnosed with ARBI has sparked alarm among health professionals. Many of these patients have been misdiagnosed and placed in dementia care homes.
Unlike dementia, with appropriate treatment and abstinence, the prognosis for brain injury caused by alcohol abuse is relatively positive and with early intervention, ARBI is a reversible condition.
Leonard Cheshire, a leading disability charity will open a specialist rehabilitation unit for patients with Alcohol Related Brain Injury in Belfast in January 2020. This will be the first of its kind across the island of Ireland.
Fiona McCabe, Director of Leonard Cheshire Northern Ireland said:
“In opening this residential rehabilitation unit in Belfast, we recognise the urgent need for a statutory multi-disciplinary Alcohol Related Brain Injury team to be established in Northern Ireland to break the chronic cycle of inadequate care.”
“Having slipped through the net of proper care, this patient group places huge financial strain each year on local health services in a revolving door pattern of acute bed occupancy and repeat emergency hospital admissions often followed by delayed discharge. The emotional and physical cost to individuals and their families is also substantial.”
“This unit, which will open in January 2020 will be the first of its kind across the island of Ireland and will provide the necessary treatment, in a specialist therapeutic environment. We do however, appreciate that this is only the start of addressing the existing care gap but it will be the first step towards giving these patients a chance to fully recover.”
Dr Joy Watson, Consultant Addictions Psychiatrist and co-author of the ‘Alcohol-related brain damage in Northern Ireland’ report, endorsed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Northern Ireland, has said:
“With the right treatment patients with alcohol related brain injury can recover and transform their lives. Services in the UK with similar drinking populations to Northern Ireland have shown impressive outcomes such as reduction in hospital admissions for people with ARBI by 85% which highlights the impact of providing the correct treatment”.