Ireland

Counselling service records 12 per cent rise in calls

Connect set up in 2006 to fill a need identified by groups representing victims of institutional abuse

A report from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) released today - World Mental Health Day - indicates that one in three young people in Ireland is likely to have experienced some form of mental disorder by the age of 13. Photograph: Getty Some children are being locked up between 8pm and 8am

Mon Dec 2 2013 - 06:45

A telephone counselling service is on course to see a 12 per cent rise in calls this year.

Connect, an out-of-hours support group set up in 2006 to fill a need identified by groups representing victims of institutional abuse, says it has received about 8,300 calls this year compared to 7,376 in 2012. If the trend continues this month, it says, the figures will be up 12 per cent year-on-year.

Connect manager Theresa Merrigan said the figures showed continuing growth in demand for the service as well as an improvement in the rate of calls answered, from 75 per cent in 2012 to 80 per cent this year. However, she expressed concern about the number of calls that the service does not have the capacity to answer.

Callers were 64 per cent female, 35.5 per cent male and 0.5 per cent transgender. They came from all counties in the Republic as well as from and Northern Ireland and Britain.

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Some 51 per cent of callers reported sexual abuse, Connect said in a statement.

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