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.

In a 20-hour week, the listeners provide a supportive network for a surprising number of people. Despite lacking resources, they operate five nights every week, listening to each caller’s story for around 25 minutes, a service that people find invaluable.

Given Ireland’s long history of abuse has been charted in graphic terms in a plethora of reports and inquiries, it is not surprising that, so far this year, sexual abuse in childhood was recounted by more than half of callers to the service.

Three in five callers reported emotional abuse, while another 31% were physically abused. There is no doubting the importance of supporting the counselling service and especially the work carried out by its professional therapists.