Counselling service is just a phone call away
It is private and confidential service. Access is easy and it is a step towards help when no other step can be taken.
Just dial 1850 652652.
In 1990 the ICA established its National Counselling Service for its 20,000 members and their families and it was regarded as a pioneer in this field.
In responding to members in this way, the ICA was taking its knowledge of the difficulties faced by many families in our modern society and offering them a lifeline.
The counselling service is a confidential channel through which people begin to address problems.
While counselling and related support services had been developing in Ireland, the rationale in setting up the ICA service included: A recognition of the isolation of many members and their financial and geographical difficulties in accessing services; the difficulties which many individuals face in confronting and articulating what may be long-term and deep-seated problems and the perceived confidentiality problems of using locally based services (where they exist).
The ICA service is based at the Head Office in Dublin and is provided by Regina Martin, Consultant Psychologist.
Counselling is provided through phone contact as well as by one-to-one appointments.
The privacy of this service, and its context within the ICA, has freed many hundreds of women to take the first step in seeking help. Today, family support services nationally have grown, and the ICA welcomes that, but the need for the ICA service has grown also.
In the region of 16 clients are seen each month for one to one counselling or family counselling and those attending generally need between two and eight appointments.
A key difference between the ICA National Counselling Service and some other telephone help lines is that the ICA service addresses the broad spectrum of problems, with a range of issues in the family/relationship area accounting for the majority.
Some 80%-85% of all calls concern difficulties between women and their husbands or partners, with some form of addictive behaviours (mainly alcohol, gambling and meanness) at the root of 30% of these cases. Around 10% of callers are seeking assistance in relation to children/parenting.
90% of calls come from women who are members of the ICA, while the remaining 10% will be initiated by men, generally a husband or partner. These proportions have remained constant over the 13 years of the service. They indicate that the pressures of family life can be overwhelming for many people.
But a critical difference between this and other services is that, because the service is ICA based, some women feel that it is a safe place to which they can turn.
ICA members and their families continue to use the National Counselling Service for the same reasons they did so in 1990.
The service has been funded through a combination of small grants in some years from the then Department of Social Welfare, ICA fundraising and a single grant in 1996 from the Department of Health.
The organisation is dependent on membership subscriptions that are not able to carry the full cost of this service. Yet it is vital to the members and a valuable and cost effective part of the counselling/support infrastructure in Ireland.
The ICA estimates that in the region of 100,000 people ICA members or family members have access to the service.
