Clinicians highlight evidence that addiction treatment cuts costs across hospitals, justice and workplaces – and urge policymakers, insurers and employers to use residential care as an economic tool, not a discretionary extra.
Smarmore Castle, one of Ireland’s leading residential addiction treatment providers, is calling on policymakers, insurers and employers to treat residential addiction care as a core part of Ireland’s economic strategy rather than a niche clinical expense.
The economic case for treatment in Ireland, Keith Cassidy, Executive Director, argues, is already clear. Ireland is paying the price of addiction across acute hospitals, prisons, lost productivity and alcohol‑related disease, yet much of that cost sits outside the addiction budget and is still poorly counted.
Smarmore Castle believes that part of the answer lies in how addiction is still perceived, including how treatment itself is understood. “We talk about...