The abuse survivors’ support organisation One in Four has seen its waiting list for psychotherapy more than double since the broadcast of a documentary last month alleging sexual abuse of boys at Blackrock College in the 1970s.
One in Four CEO Maeve Lewis told The Irish Times In The News podcast that numbers on the waiting list had risen from 45 to over 100 since the documentary aired and raised concerns for the welfare of those on the list.
“Last year, one in four of the people we met told us they had made an attempt on their own lives, so there is always a concern”, she said.
According to One in Four’s annual report for 2021, which was published last week, those on the list could wait for up to 15 months to be seen.
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Not all of those seeking help were former pupils of the Spiritans-run Blackrock College, said Ms Lewis.
“We’ve equally had calls from men who have attended Jesuit schools, Dominican schools, Vincentian schools and other fee paying schools” as well as victims of abuse within their families, she said.
On the question of how the state should respond to abuse by members of the Spiritans congregation, Ms Lewis said any inquiry should apply to all fee-paying schools.
“In truth, I think there needs to be an inquiry into every organisation in the country where children congregate, because we’ve had big scandals in the Scouts, in one of the voluntary ambulance services, Swim Ireland have had their difficulties, there’s been people convicted within the GAA.
“But to be realistic it will probably be confined to the fee-paying schools”.
Ms Lewis also told the podcast about One In Four’s Offender Prevention Programme, which counsels men at risk of sexually abusing children.
“Our success rate has been very good. To the best of our knowledge there’s only been one or two instances where somebody has reoffended”, she said.
There is also an 18-month waiting list for the Offender Prevention Programme, with 26 men currently on the list.
The men are ”definitely posing a risk to children” in the intervening period, she said.
Ms Lewis said One in Four was aware of an “epidemic” of online abuse being perpetrated against children and said she was seeking funding for the establishment of a “national task force” to tackle the issue.
“We still really haven’t tackled the issue of child sexual abuse,” she said. “Policy-makers, legislators recoil because it is such a difficult area.
“I hope the task force will be the first step in a way forward to a huge national strategy”.
