Calls to Childline surged by 25% last year

CHILDREN in despair made a staggering 800,000 calls to the ISPCC’s Childline last year, a surge of almost 25% from the previous year.

The unprecedented level of demand for the voluntary listening service was far more than the organisation could cope with and some 300,000 calls – more than one in three of all those made – went unanswered.

Child protection workers are blaming the economic crisis for much of the increase, warning that children are being hit hard by the financial hardships and emotional pressures unemployment and spiralling debts are inflicting on families.

Fergus Finlay, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardos, said the figures reflected a huge amount of additional pressure within families over the past year.

“We know from other organisations that we work with that the incidence of domestic violence has gone up and we know that there is a huge amount of stress and pressure financially.

“Where there were two breadwinners in a family a year ago, there is one or none now, and very often it’s the lower-paid person who is the remaining breadwinner. That has endless implications, from the ability of parents to send their children to school properly equipped to the cancellation of holidays.

“It doesn’t surprise me in the least that the numbers of children feeling down and low and stressed out as a consequence has increased.”

Some of the surge in calls to Childline is attributed to increased awareness among children about the service, with recent addition of services online and by text message.

But issues such as loneliness, anxiety, neglect, abuse and violence continue to be the main reasons why children make contact, most often at night or in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Finlay, who also expressed concern at Health Service Executive figures showing 155 children were in adult psychiatric units last year, said the Government needs to provide more specialist mental health facilities for children and greater family support services.

Barnardos and the ISPCC are among the children’s rights groups calling for a firm date to be set for the long-promised children’s rights referendum which would put pressure on the state to provide better supports for children and those who care for them.

The full scale of the crisis for the country’s children will be detailed today when the ISPCC publishes the 2009 Childline statistics.

The line costs the voluntary organisation over €4 million a year to run. The massive 25% increase in calls last year comes after a 4% increase in 2008 over 2007 and a 9% increase between 2006 and 2007.

There were also difficulties in reaching all the children who made calls in 2008, with 37% of calls going unanswered.

* Childline can be contacted on freephone 1800 666666 or www.childline.ie