Nurses play a pivotal role in Dublin Simon Community’s Medical Residential Treatment services.  In 2004 the charity, with the support of the HSE, opened an eight-bed Alcohol Detoxification Unit for clients experiencing homelessness.

Today these medical services have grown to encompass an 11-bed Alcohol and Benzodiazepine detoxification unit, a twelve Bed Step Up Step Down (Intermediate Care) unit, an eight bed BBV Stabilisation/Respite Unit and a Primary Care Nursing Service.  These services are staffed by 44 nurses and focus on providing vital nursing interventions that are a vital step in rebuilding lives and supporting people to exit homelessness.

Dublin Simon Community’s nursing staff come from a variety of geographic locations (The Azores to Zimbabwe) and clinical backgrounds, including general, mental health, forensics, development studies, gerontology intellectual disability and a range of other specialisations.  This team is supported by placements of high-calibre student nurses from Dublin City University and University College Dublin.

Head of Treatment and Enterprise at Dublin Simon Community, Majella Darcy, said: “2020 is Year of the Nurse and what better way to mark this than to showcase the incredible work that nurses do across the broad range of services Dublin Simon Community provides.  We have been marking various world Health Days with a range of materials including profiles, articles, projects and pieces of research undertaken by our nursing staff.”