20 people a month in Wexford seek self-harm help

AS many as 20 people a month are seeking to access a HSE-funded, self- harm intervention programme in Co Wexford.

The Self Harm Intervention Programme (SHIP) has a caseload of about 20 people at any one time for 12 sessions, and has been operating since it began on a pilot basis in 2004.

Counsellor Athol Henwick said: “It used to be that anybody could refer themselves but we’ve changed it now to professional referral because we have had huge volumes of people being referred that we can’t deal with as quickly as we would like, so we have had to have them referred by a prof who can have a care plan prepared for them.”