Seeking Safety Ireland (SSI) is a programme which supports people with substance use and complex trauma histories. We are now seeking to engage a suitably qualified consultant to assist in the development of a Strategic Plan for the project for 2025 - 2028.

It is intended that the independent consultant will engage with the project over 6 months commencing December 2024/January 2025. The available budget for this work is a maximum of €20,000 (inclusive of VAT) to develop the new Strategic Plan.

Introduction and Background

Organisation Overview

SSI has operated as a pilot programme from 2022 to March 2024. Seven community/voluntary organisations and the HSE worked together to implement an Irish adaptation of the Seeking Safety Model. The model was evaluated and successfully achieved mainstream funding from the Department of Health in August 2024.

SSI has been run by a Governance body which comprises a representative from each of the partner agencies and the HSE. It is responsible for overseeing best practices in delivering Seeking Safety in Ireland and training both staff and Peer Support Workers to deliver the programme here.

Programme Overview

Seeking Safety Ireland (SSI) was designed to roll out the Seeking Safety Programme to women in Ireland who are experiencing the dual diagnosis of mental health problems and addiction with a focus on Domestic, Sexual Gender Based Violence (DSGBV). The Seeking Safety Programme (Najavits, 2002) is a peer-reviewed and internationally recognised manual for establishing safety in the lives of women with such a dual diagnosis; it is a programme that aims to help women find a space to allow healing and recovery to begin. It is a pre-program to counselling, preparing women to more successfully embrace a life no longer controlled by addiction and/or mental ill-health.

This programme has been evaluated using Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) methodology, which means our trained peer researchers conducted the evaluation (copy attached). This evaluation demonstrated the value of this programme to the women who accessed it.

Seeking Safety Ireland has engaged 316 individual women who use substances and have complex trauma histories in our 7 partner agencies across several sites in Ireland.

Purpose of the Strategic Plan –

The purpose of the Strategic Plan will be to provide a means which will enable SSI to:

• Improve outcomes for the people accessing the programme
• Provide clarity on the purpose of the SSI Governance Group
• Expand the programme across the island of Ireland
• Enables SSI to scale up while ensuring fidelity

Please see document attached below for further information.

Contact Information

Completed tenders must be submitted via email to Seeking Safety Ireland, seekingsafetyireland@ruhama.ie by 12.00pm on 15th November 2024 with subject reference SSI Strategic Plan Tender.
Tenders received after the closing date will not be considered.

The contact for this tender is:
Anita Whyte, National Programme Manager / Project Lead for Dual Diagnosis,
HSE Clinical Design & Innovation,
Office of the Chief Clinical Officer, Health Service Executive,
Tel: 087 7935637
Email: anita.whyte@hse.ie