When Passerose Mantoy first started working in addiction services in Dublin in 2000, the city was at the back end of the heroin epidemic which had gripped it throughout the 1990s. Many people were still taking heroin, but she says “the focus was very much on opiate use, alcohol use and cannabis”.
Mantoy has now been working with Chrysalis Community Drug Project, an organisation that supports people impacted by addiction, for a quarter of a century. Originally from France, she started as a frontline worker and is now its chief executive.
Chrysalis is based in Dublin city with centres in Dublin 1 and Dublin 7. The organisation, which is funded by the HSE and the North Inner City Drug and Alcohol Task Force, offers a range of services including individual counselling, group sessions and detox programmes.
A lot has…