More than half of callers to abuse victim counselling service are new

More than half of callers to a counselling service for childhood abuse survivors this year had never reached out for help before.

Connect Counselling service expects to receive 9,000 calls this year — 54% are new callers.

Service director, Theresa Merrigan, believes more people are first-time callers because Connect, a HSE- funded service, is better known.

Also, its anonymous nature is comforting for those only starting to speak of childhood abuse, but not ready for face-to-face counselling.

Over the last three years, there has been a 42% rise in the number of individual callers to Connect, a 17% increase from 2013 to 2014 and a 25% increase from 2014 to the end of November.

Almost half of callers (48%) said the abuse occurred in the family; almost a third (31%) said that it happened in the community; while for 15% it was institutional. Nearly one in four of the callers (23%) over the age of 50 spoke of institutional abuse.

Where the abuse occurred in the family, almost one quarter (24%) reported abuse by the father, of which just over 12% was sexual abuse.

One in five (21%) reported abuse by the mother — it was predominantly emotional and physical abuse.

Of the 11% reporting abuse by a brother, 10% said the abuse that they suffered was sexual.

Emotional abuse was the most common type of abuse (58%), followed by sexual (55%), physical (30%), and neglect (15%).

“We would have noticed new callers on the line and the statistics suggest it is double the number we would have had last year,” said Ms Merrigan.

“For many people who have suffered childhood abuse, beginning to speak of those experiences can bring feelings of shame, embarrassment, guilt, and fear of judgement.”

However, not all the calls for help are heard — up to the end of November, only 4,944 of the 8,113 calls were answered. There were 2,460 calls made when the service was closed and 709 were lost.

Ms Merrigan said the service was open 20 hours a week and some people might not necessarily know that the service is closed when they call.

“We are always concerned about the people who don’t get to speak to somebody at the time that they call and we have no way of knowing whether those people call back.”

Connect was set up in 2006 at the request of survivor groups. It is available at freephone 1800 477 477 from the Republic and 00800 477 477 77 from the North and UK.

The opening times are usually 6pm to 10pm Wednesday to Sunday, but from Sunday, December 20, to Sunday, January 3, the service will be open every night from 6pm to 10pm.