Family counsellors experiencing huge demand on resources

The Dunmanway Family Resource Centre (FRC) has never been busier — good news in many ways, not so good in others.

The centre’s coordinator, Tracey Holt, said trainee counsellors had been drafted in to help cover the demand from people for sessions.

It is only one aspect of the services provided at the FRC, which already incorporates a Men’s Shed scheme — an area that allows participants to work with their hands in an open environment where they can discuss what’s on their mind.

Mary Ross, the director of the FRC in Ballincollig, said it too would shortly have a Men’s Shed. Often funding for the shed schemes comes from a number of different sources, such as the local authority and the National Men’s Shed Association.

In West Cork, however, there is only one part-time counsellor, so trainee counsellors have been helping out.

According to Tracey Holt, there can be between 10 and 15 people awaiting an appointment at any one time, having to wait a couple of weeks before they can be seen.

Elsewhere in the county the FRC in Adrigole — one of six FRCs in Co Cork — has not yet received its allocation for counselling this year and expects it to be cut.

Its project coordinator, Noreen Murnane, said: “We would have more and more requests from outside as well as inside our catchment area.”

In addition, whereas previously people may have continued with counselling sessions once the number of sessions offered by the FRC had concluded, now they are dropping out due to the cost, and finding themselves seeking help again later on.

Throw in the increased number of social protection checks and other reviews and people, according to Noreen, “are much more scared to apply for things they are entitled to”.