Fourfold increase in calls to Women’s Aid since start of 2016

The number of calls per week to the Women’s Aid national helpline has almost quadrupled since it became a 24/7 service at the start of the year.

The organisation said it received 383 contacts from January 4 to the end of the month, representing an increased rate of 283% of anticipated contacts compared with the same period in 2015 to its ‘out-of-hours’ contact service.

The organisation had predicted an increase in the number of contacts to the helpline once it went 24/7, based on a pilot of the 24-hour service run in the later months of last year and which had no accompanying publicity.

The January average of 95 night-time calls per week includes some calls that lasted as long as an hour, and Linda Smith, manager of the National Freephone Helpline, said some of the calls may have been triggered by a recent event or episode.

Ms Smith said the pilot 24/7 phoneline, which ran from September to December had not been advertised as “we didn’t want to lead women to think there would be a continuum of support” from the service.

Women’s Aid received no extra funding for the extension of the phone service, and instead reconfigured its existing services and drafted in 10 more volunteers. It also welcomed back 10 other people who had previously volunteered for it.

Ms Smith said: “We are handling a lot of emotional support calls during the night. The only thing we notice [that is different] is the possibility the calls might be triggered by something that has happened quite recently.”

Ms Smith said during December, when the pilot period was still in operation, the phoneline received 30 calls relating to 10 women who were seeking a place in a refuge. As for comparable figures for January, she said: “We made 30 calls for 14 contacts with a total of five contacts receiving a call back from a refuge regarding accommodation.”

Of calls overall she said: “The calls are lasting from five minutes to an hour, depending on what support the person is looking for”, saying many callers were linked in with local services or with Women’s Aid’s own one-to-one support services.