Half of callers to helpline suffered abuse

Sexual abuse in childhood was reported by more than half of callers to a telephone counselling service for the first six months of 2015.

Approximately 14% of the 2,565 calls to the Connect service went unanswered due to resource pressures, according to service manager Theresa Merrigan.

“We are open 20 hours a week for four nights and the volume of calls in that timeframe is significant,” said Ms Merrigan. “With a small team, we can only answer so many. The average call lasts 20-25 minutes.”