Surge in demand for self-harm counselling

A VOLUNTARY agency set up in the mid-west to counsel people who are suicidal or self-harming is growing at such a rate it is expected to treat as many people as at its five centres in Dublin.

Pieta House is now dealing with 46 people at its Limerick centre in Raheen, including a child of six .

Chief executive of Pieta House, Joan Freeman, said they expect to cater for up to 500 people this year.

In Dublin their five centres cater for about 1,200 new assessments a year.

Ms Freeman said: “Such has been the response to our new centre in Limerick we anticipate we are going to be as busy as all our five Dublin centres together. We opened in Limerick in January to cater for people from Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary. But we are now finding that people from Galway and Cork are making contact with us to avail of our services, because of the lack of crisis intervention services like ours.”

She said they have already opened up a “pathway” from the health service which enables people who are suicidal or causing self-harm to be linked with the Pieta House therapists.

There are 10 therapists based at the Limerick Pieta House engaged on a needs-be basis.

Due to the intensity of the work therapists are only permitted to work a maximum 15 hours a week.

Ms Freeman revealed that a child aged six is one of those getting counselling in Limerick due to self-harm.

Studies have shown that Limerick has one of the highest rates of self-harm in Ireland or Britain.

Ms Freeman said they had found a great willingness in Limerick to avail of the Pieta House services.

“Over the past few months we have seen a greater eagerness to tackle these problems in Limerick than we have seen in Dublin for the past five and a half years since we commenced our services,” she said.

Ms Freeman said they now provide urgent intervention for people who are admitted to A&E in Limerick distressed and suicidal.

She said: “We have found a great sense of relief that people now know that this situation cane be dealt with through Pieta House and the collaboration is really wonderful. We are not surprised at the level of support we are getting as we are only tipping the iceberg right across Ireland on these issues.”

The Pieta House service in Limerick costs about €250,000 a year to run and the organisation gets 10% state funding.