Half of callers to helpline suffered abuse

Sexual abuse in childhood was reported by more than half of callers to a telephone counselling service for the first six months of 2015.

Approximately 14% of the 2,565 calls to the Connect service went unanswered due to resource pressures, according to service manager Theresa Merrigan.

“We are open 20 hours a week for four nights and the volume of calls in that timeframe is significant,” said Ms Merrigan. “With a small team, we can only answer so many. The average call lasts 20-25 minutes.”

Connect provides listening support for callers, many of whom are waiting for face-to-face appointments with counsellors and psychotherapists in the National Counselling Service. However, figures supplied to the Irish Examiner by the Health Service Executive (HSE) show as many as 1,348 people are on waiting lists to avail of this free service for adults who have experienced trauma and abuse in childhood.

This figure includes 504 clients waiting up to three months; 360 waiting three to six months; and 484 waiting more than six months.

The HSE said the figures “are inclusive of those whose needs cover the four categories of childhood abuse which includes neglect, emotional, physical and sexual abuse as clients frequently present having experienced more than one category of abuse in childhood”.

The Connect figures show approximately three in five callers reported emotional abuse and another 31% reported physical abuse. One in six (17%) spoke of neglect in childhood. As many as three in five said their abusive experiences occurred in the family home, with 13% reporting being abused by their father, 9% by their mother, and 5% by a brother. Some 14% of callers reported multiple abusers.

The report also showed:

• Almost one quarter (24%) spoke about abuse in institutional settings. Two in five did not reveal who their abuser was, but of those who did, 25% spoke of clerical abuse and 17% of abuse within convent settings;
• 15% of callers were family members of childhood abuse survivors;
• Two thirds of the callers were women, one third were men, and 2% transgender.

Ms Merrigan said that many callers to the service, despite reporting sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, did not see neglect as necessarily an abusive experience.

“Our psychotherapists are often surprised to hear callers speak of deprivation and neglect in childhood in a minimising way,” said Ms Merrigan. “It is as if it has not occurred to them that childhood neglect is an abusive experience.”

She said some abuse in the home could be quite subtle, where the mother might excuse herself while the father engaged in beating the child.

Callers to Connect are often dealing with low mood, depression, sadness, anger, and low self-esteem, Ms Merrigan said, and “many present with addiction issues, relationship problems, parenting issues and feelings of helplessness, confusion and hopelessness”.

Ms Merrigan said some callers have longstanding mental issues with long histories of psychiatric care.

Connect has not had funding cut this year — it remains at 2014 levels — but has just five counsellors working part-time.

To contact Connect freephone, open 6pm-10pm, Wednesday to Sunday, contact 1800 477477 from the Republic of Ireland and 00800 477 47777 from the North and the UK. For more, go to www.connectcounselling.ie