Helpline gets 31% of calls while it is closed
Almost one third of calls to a counselling helpline for adult survivors of childhood abuse are made when the service is unavailable.
Connect supported 470 individual callers between January and November this year through its out of hours service, that operates for 20 hours a week.
Over the year it experienced a 22% increase in individual callers receiving support, but it is concerned that 31% of calls are made when the service is closed, and calls cannot be returned.
Counsellors expect to have answered a greater percentage of calls during opening hours this year, with 85% answered, compared to 80% in 2013.
Over half (54%) of the callers have described an experience of sexual abuse, a 3% increase on the same period last year.
The number of all calls received, both inside and outside opening hours this year, is expected to reach over 10,000 by year-end.
The independent service that opens from 6 to 10pm from Wednesday to Sunday, was established in 2006 in response to demands from survivors of institutional abuse.
Connect manager, Theresa Merrigan, said the latest figures reflect a continuing year-on-year growth in demand.
She said there was increasing pressure to meet the demand within the time constraint of the 20 hours per week that Connect was funded by the HSE.
She said that under-pressure staff had to find other services for callers because there was concern about Connect’s ability to provide intensive ongoing support to such a high number of individual callers.
“Most callers are in need of intensive support, and while Connect can support people through crisis, our goal is to provide initial support and then direct people towards face-to-face services where they can receive the support of multi-disciplinary teams,” said Ms Merrigan.
The HSE funds face-to-face counselling in every county, and callers to Connect are encouraged to use the free service.
The service has found that an increasing number of callers talk about multiple experiences of abuse and neglect.
Many had reported emotional and physical abuse in familial contexts where they were abused by multiple family members.
“Such experiences in childhood lead to emotional difficulties in adult life which vary from depression to self-harm and suicidal thoughts,” said Ms Merrigan.
The most common setting for abuse to have happened to those who called Connect this year is in the family, at 45.5%, followed by the community at 27.5%.
Institutional abuse accounted for 16% of calls throughout the year, although it increased to 23% when the Mother and Baby Home Inquiry was announced last summer and for a six-week period Connect extended its opening hours to seven nights a week.
The number of men availing of support increased by 4% this year: 61% of callers were women and 39% men.
Almost one in four callers (23%) who reported abuse within families said it was perpetrated by their father while one in five (20%) said it was carried out by their mother; 15.5% blamed both parents, and 12% said it was committed by their brother.
Of those who reported abuse committed by their mother, 51% reported physical abuse, 20% sexual abuse and 88% emotional abuse.
- www.connectcounselling.ie.
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