A new report reveals that hundreds of child abuse survivors were waiting an average of one year for counselling in many health board areas at the end of last year.
The report from the Royal College of Surgeons, which reviewed the National Counselling Service set up by the State in 2000 for victims of institutional abuse, found that while overall satisfaction ratings with the service were high, there were concerns among users of the service about the length they had to wait for counselling.
Transport to and from counselling centres also caused difficulty for some.
More than 5,000 people have been referred to the service, with almost half of these being referred in 2002 alone.
Demand has increased since a decision was made to make it available to all adults who experienced abuse in childhood, even if it was not institutional abuse.
"The implications of this intense service demand for waiting lists are evident . . . at the end of 2002, the waiting list nationally was approximately 590, with an estimated average waiting time of one year for a counselling place in many health boards," the report said.
The review was conducted by inviting more than 800 survivors of abuse who used the service to be interviewed. Just 268 agreed, a response rate of 33 per cent.
Of these, 75 per cent said they received an initial appointment with the service within one month of contacting it. Some 18 per cent waited from two to three months for an appointment and the remainder waited longer.
The report said over 30 per cent of clients also had to wait for a place to become available for ongoing counselling after their initial appointment. This was a cause of distress to many as they felt "distressed, exposed and vulnerable at the time of assessment and felt that they needed to be seen straight away".
Furthermore, some 40 per cent of those interviewed were not happy with the duration of their counselling. In some cases this was because they were unable to continue with it due to personal, family or work commitments; counsellors suggesting they should finish up; or participants choosing to finish as they felt that counselling was not benefiting them.
Ms Christine Buckley, a survivor of institutional abuse, said waiting times for the service were of deep concern. She called on the Department of Health to provide additional resources and counsellors to enable those on waiting lists to begin their healing process now.