THE PUBLICATION of reports on clerical child sex abuse last year prompted a 37 per cent increase in the number of people seeking counselling, a national helpline service said yesterday.
Connect, which is funded by the Health Service Executive, said it received 8,264 calls from the public during 2009, up from 6,020 in 2008 and 4,630 in 2007.
A quarter of calls seeking counselling were made by people living in Dublin. People in Cork and Galway accounted for 11 per cent and 10 per cent of calls respectively. Just 31 per cent of callers were male, according to Connect.
Connect provides an out-of-hours telephone support and counselling service for adults who were abused during their childhood and relatives of people who suffered abuse. It is available Wednesday to Sunday from 6 to 10 pm.
Connect chief executive Anne Richardson said the increase in calls during 2009 was clearly linked to the public focus on the findings of the Ryan and Murphy reports published last year.