800 addicts receiving treatment

A total of 797 people - 509 men and 288 women - were receiving treatment for drug or alcohol misuse in the Western area amounting to one seventh of the total number of people in treatment in Northern Ireland.

Across the five Health and Social Care Trusts the largest proportion of individuals in treatment for alcohol misuse was in the Southern HSCT (69 per cent), followed by the South Eastern (62 per cent), Western (61 per cent), Northern (56 per cent) and Belfast HSCT (45 per cent).

The largest proportion of those in treatment for drug misuse was in the Northern HSCT (31 per cent), followed by the Belfast (27 per cent), South Eastern (20 per cent), Western (18 per cent) and the Southern HSCT (13 per cent).

Just under one tenth (8 per cent) of those in treatment in Prison received treatment for alcohol misuse, while 97 per cent of those on the Hospital Inpatients System were in treatment for alcohol misuse.

The figures are contained in the third Census of Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services in Northern Ireland: March 2010, which establishes the number of persons in treatment for drug or alcohol misuse across the province.