
How Do Other Countries Approach Addiction Treatment? Ireland's National Drug Strategy
Professor Katherine Kaminsky, a policy advisor and harm reduction researcher, discusses Ireland's National Drug Strategy as part of Yale's Addiction Treatment course for healthcare providers. She traces the country's shift from an abstinence-only model toward a combined harm-reduction-and-recovery approach, describing the multi-sector partnerships behind it. The conversation covers safe injection sites, school-based prevention programs, and the practical difficulties of sharing patient data across a national system. Kaminsky also addresses how rural isolation limits treatment access in Ireland, comparing these patterns to trends in the United States and the rest of Europe. The episode is framed around a clinical question: what elements of Ireland's model could inform addiction care elsewhere. It fits within a larger Yale course built around a case study performed by actors, with input from seven instructors on screening, diagnosis, and treatment referral for substance use disorders.