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"I was pretty confident I could stay off heroin while in custody"

Resettlement

Robert
I began shoplifting to get money to maintain my heroin habit. Before I went into prison, I had used needle exchanges and had accessed the Community Drug Team but had always relapsed.

I was originally seen on remand for assessment, before being transferred to another prison. I then started some one–to–one work with an allocated caseworker from the CARAT team and also attended a pre–release group focusing on overdose and relapse prevention.

I was referred from the CARAT team to the prison–based resettlement service before release and was pretty confident I could stay off heroin while still in custody but concerned about relapse after my release.

A three–way meeting was arranged between my CARAT worker, the Throughcare worker and myself, to develop a release plan that included referral to a local clinic for support, a liver function test in preparation for Naltraxone prescribing and referral to a residential rehabilitation programme. We also talked about ongoing support from the resettlement worker and pre-entry to the rehabilitation programme.

The resettlement worker saw me at the clinic on three occasions after my release and before my admission to the rehabilitation programme. The application to the Ley Community programme was successful and to date, I am still drug free and still in treatment.

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