Abuse counsellors braced for influx of crisis calls

Counsellors were today bracing themselves for an onslaught of crisis calls after the latest horrific revelations of a Catholic Church cover-up of clerical sex abuse.

Some of the country’s leading victim support services, which saw as much as a 300% surge in calls after the Ryan Report in May, said they were preparing for a similar reaction to the Dublin Archdiocese inquiry.

Maeve Lewis, executive director of One in Four, warned some services were worried about their ability to quickly respond to survivors because of Government funding cutbacks and a recession-led collapse in private donations.

The sex abuse support organisation dealt with almost 700 new clients in the two months after the Ryan Report into child abuse in church-run reformatory and industrial schools – more than doubling their yearly figure.

Demands for emergency funding to cope with the fall-out of the high-profile inquiries fell on deaf ears, said Ms Lewis.

“Therapists were absolutely shattered by the avalanche of the stories and the sadness of the stories last time,” she said.

“So it’s really important to say that despite all the public apologies on the part of the Government and their commitment to provide services for survivors, we and other services did not receive one extra cent to help us cope with this.

“We are very concerned about what is going to happen (with the publication of the Dublin Archdiocese report) in that we’re still working through the backlog of the Ryan report, and now we will have an upsurge in numbers again.”

Ms Lewis said many who contacted One in Four in the wake of the earlier report had never spoken before about their abuse, and included people whose lives had disintegrated into addiction, homelessness, depression and suicide attempts.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said the Ryan Report sparked a 300% jump in the number of calls to its 24-hour helpline and they were expecting the same this week.

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, chief executive officer, said she had asked the state for an extra €30,000 to cover extra costs this year, based on calculations showing the spike in calls over ten days in May cost them €15,000.

“But we haven’t received a penny for it,” she said.

“Not only have we not got anything extra but our grant has been cut.”

But, like One in Four, the Rape Crisis Centre stressed they would do whatever was necessary to deliver help where it was needed.

“It is important for the survivors to know that the service will be there and we will pull out all the stops,” said Ms O’Malley-Dunlop.

“We are prepared and we will respond to the needs of survivors, their families and friends.”

Connect, the National Adults Counselling Service, is extending the hours of its helpline to cope with demand after the Dublin Archdiocese report.

Director Anne Richardson said a 39% increase in calls already this year was down to the impact of the Ryan Report.

The Health Service Executive has also launched a special extended counselling helpline while the Samaritans said it was fully prepared for an increase in calls.

Helplines:

:: Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, 1800 778888, open 24 hours.

:: One in Four, 01 662 4070, open hours 9am to 5pm.

:: Faoiseamh, 1800 331 234 (UK and NI) 00 8000 973 272.

:: HSE helpdesk, 1 800 670 700, open hours 8am to 2am.

:: Samaritans, 1 850 60 90 90, open hours.

:: Connect, 1 800 477 477 (UK and NI) 00 8000 477 477 77, open hours.