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.