During Q1 of 2026, most people in Kerry accessed services through self-referral (57 per cent), pointing to growing awareness and improved accessibility in the community.<\/p>\n
The gender split followed regional trends, with 60 per cent male and 40 per cent female clients, while retention rates rose sharply to 92 per cent \u2013 up from 64 per cent in Q1 of 2025 \u2013 suggesting stronger engagement and more effective programmes.<\/p>\n
Alcohol remains the most common substance in Kerry at 51 per cent, followed by cocaine (17 per cent), benzodiazepines (13 per cent), cannabis (11 per cent), and heroin (9 per cent).<\/p>\n
While overall patterns have remained stable, cocaine use has increased slightly by four per cent, indicating a gradual upward trend locally.<\/p>\n
These findings form part of wider national analysis from Coolmine, highlighted at its recent graduation ceremony, which shows continued high demand and increasingly complex needs in addiction treatment, with more than 3,200 people nationwide accessing services over the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemand remains extremely high and what we are seeing now is a new baseline for addiction treatment in Ireland,\u201d said Pauline McKeown, Chief Executive of Coolmine Therapeutic Community.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are presenting with increasingly complex needs, which requires sustained investment, integrated care and accessible services nationwide,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Family-based supports remain central to Coolmine\u2019s approach, recognising the wider impact of addiction on children and communities.<\/p>\n
Anita Harris, Deputy Head of Services, said the continued rise in women accessing services and emerging substance use trends highlight the need for trauma-informed, gender-responsive care.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupporting families and children is essential to breaking cycles of harm and building sustainable recovery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During Q1 of 2026, most people in Kerry accessed services through self-referral (57 per cent), pointing to growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,16585],"class_list":["post-426307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-stephen-fernane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}