Connect helpline sees 22% increase in calls

Connect, the telephone counselling service for people abused as children, has had a 22 per cent increase in callers to date this year. Up to 54 per cent of callers described an experience of sexual abuse this year, a 3 per cent increase on the same period last year.

The overall number of calls received by the free out- of-hours support service for adults who suffered abuse, trauma or neglect in childhood this year to date (inside and outside opening hours) is in line with previous years. It is expected to reach more than 10,000 by the end of this month.

Connect’s telephone- based counselling service is open from 6pm to 10pm from Wednesday to Sunday. This year it supported 470 individual callers between January and November through its 20-hours-a-week service.

It was set up in 2006, as the National Counselling Helpline Service following demands from survivors of institutional abuse for an independent and professional out-of-hours telephone- based counselling and support service. In 2008, it was renamed Connect.

Independent board

Part-funded by the Health Service Executive,

it has an independent board that includes members of support groups such as Aislinn, Right of Place and Soca UK, as well as HSE representatives.

Its counsellors are concerned that 31 per cent of calls come into the service when it is closed, and remain unanswered.

Connect manager Theresa Merrigan said the 2014 figures reflect a continuing year-on-year growth in demand as well as a growing pressure to meet such demand within the 20 hours a week for which it is funded.

“There is a concern around Connect’s ability to provide intensive ongoing support to such a high number of individual callers,” she said.

Multiple instances

of abuse A growing number of callers talk of multiple experiences of abuse and neglect, she said:

“Many report emotional and physical abuse in familial contexts where they were abused by multiple family members. Such experiences in childhood lead to emotional difficulties in adult life which vary from depression to self-harm and suicidal thoughts.”

The most common setting for abuse reported by callers this year was the family at 45.5 per cent, followed by the community at 27.5 per cent.

“Institutional abuse accounted for 16 per cent of calls, though this figure rose at times of public focus on institutional abuse, accounting for 23 per cent of calls at the announcement of the mother-and-baby-home inquiry in June and July last,” she said.

Of the 2014 callers to date, 61 per cent were female and 39 per cent male, a 4 per cent increase on 2013 in men seeking support.