28% of calls to counselling service unanswered

The number of calls made to the country’s telephone counselling service soared by 22% last year to 10,384, but 28% of calls went unanswered.

The Connect Counselling service yesterday published its annual figures which showed that 80% of calls made last year were by women, meaning the number made by men halved to just 20%.

Half of all those who called the service were in their 30s. There was also a high number of callers who said they had suffered from a mental illness, primarily depression.