Funding cuts - Connect provide valuable service

ANYONE who believes that the trauma of neglect, or emotional, sexual, and physical abuse in childhood does not leave a life-changing mark on the victims should read today’s front-page report on the difficulties facing Connect, a national telephone counselling service.

So pressing were the demands on this vital facility in the first six months of 2015 that around 14% of the 2,565 calls to the voluntary organisation went unanswered.

Essentially, Connect provides therapeutic counselling and professional support for adult callers awaiting face-to-face appointments in the free National Counselling Service which is so stretched, judging by data from the HSE, that as many as 1,348 people are on waiting lists.