80% of Cork homeless saw abuse or substance misuse as children

A survey of homeless people accessing services at Cork Simon has found almost 80% had experienced four or more adverse childhood experiences, such as physicial or sexual abuse or substance misuse in the family.

Some service users, the survey showed, began using alcohol at the age of 12 and were using drugs such as cannabis by the time they left school in their mid-teens.

It further found more than 71% of those questioned had, at some stage, had suicidal thoughts and more than half had a history of self-harm.