Calls to Childline reach record levels
Figures released by the ISPCC yesterday showed its Childline service answered 294,908 calls in 2007, although more than half the calls to the number are still going unanswered.
Of the calls answered, 155,017 involved a two-way interaction, with the remainder often silent calls.
Those involved in running the Childline service said they were concerned about the growth in the number of calls relating to abuse and violence — last year 20,592 calls, or 13% of the total, were linked with violence and abuse.
A further 25,897 calls, or 16% of the total, were to do with issues of sexuality. Issues involving everyday life accounted for 70,801 calls, or 45% of all calls.
Other worrying trends also emerged: 85 calls involved child prostitution or sexual exploitation; 315 calls involved concerns over seeking shelter; 138 calls involved children who had been abandoned; and 1,174 calls involved concerns over drug abuse, with another 248 linked with addiction.
Childline manager Margie Roe said the number of unanswered calls was “a resource issue” and said measures would be put in place to ensure full call answering by 2011.
The percentage of calls being answered has increased steadily since 2002, when just 22% of calls were answered, and Ms Roe said the service cost about €3 million to run.
“There are certain times of the day when it is busier, such as when children come out of school, and we will be looking at focusing on those times so more calls can be answered,” she said.
“We have noticed an increase in calls relating to abuse and violence — it is higher than last year and we would be concerned about that.”
The figures also show 6,295 calls last year related to mental health issues, ranging from topics such as depression (964 calls) to suicide (926 calls).
“We have made recommendations regarding the improving support services for children experiencing mental health issues,” said Ms Roe. “These issues do not happen nine-to-five but a lot of the services available are nine-to-five and that is something we have been lobbying for.”
Childline’s text and web services, which, unlike the phone service, do not operate on a 24-hour basis, also saw an increase in activity last year.
The automated text service received 75,175 texts and dealt with a range of issues, such as bullying (5,632 texts), pregnancy (7,240 texts) and suicide (4,978 texts).
Its one-to-one Teentext service, meanwhile, received 32,051 texts.
The web service received 22,086 visits and answered 689 emails.
Ms Roe said both the text and the web services “mirrored” the issues dealt with on the phone service, and stressed the importance of ensuring the rights of the child through a constitutional referendum.
On the issue of child mental health services in Cavan and Monaghan, local TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called on Health Minister Mary Harney to ensure “vital services” in the region were maintained.
The Sinn Féin deputy said: “The announcement by the Health Service Executive North East that it will only accept urgent or emergency child psychiatric referrals from GPs in Cavan and Monaghan for at least the next four months requires an immediate response from the minister.”
