A support group for men who are victims of domestic abuse recorded a 39% increase in calls to its helpline last year when compared with the previous year.

According to the 2014 Annual Report from AMEN, its national helpline, which is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, received a total of 5,670 calls last year - a 39% increase from 2013.

Over 2,600 of these calls were classed as ‘crisis calls', which are described in the report as ‘calls from men, and occasionally relatives, who are extremely distressed by their circumstances'.

Each helpline call lasted an average of 20-30 minutes, and the busiest month for calls was February.

The report also noted that AMEN recorded a 36% increase in overall contacts last year. The organisation dealt with a total of 6,660 interactions in 2014, including phone calls, texts, emails, one-to-one support sessions and court accompaniment. This represents a 36.8% increase on the activity recorded in 2013.

Some 70% of those who made contact were Irish, while 30% were non-nationals. The number of non-nationals seeking support last year rose by 12%.

Four in five of those who made contact disclosed their age and among these, 62% were between 40 and 50, 28% were between 50 and 60, while the rest were under 30 or over 60.

A total of 477 one-to-one sessions were delivered to 359 men last year - an increase of 47% when compared with 2013 and 82% when compared with 2012. These support sessions took place in the AMEN office in Navan and an outreach clinic in Dublin.

AMEN also offers a court accompaniment service, which offers assistance and support in advance of court appearances, as well as help with paperwork that has to be submitted to the courts.

Court accompaniment is offered in Dublin, Meath, Louth, Kildare, Cavan, Monaghan, Westmeath and Wicklow. In 2014, 145 men were assisted through 185 meeting. Two in three of these were Irish.

The report also revealed that five volunteers with AMEN delivered 214 hours of counselling last year to 33 men. Each man received an average of six counselling sessions.

"As there is no direct funding for counselling services, all counselling hours were provided by volunteers. AMEN is extremely grateful and appreciative of these counsellors' contribution," the report noted.

Men disclosed a range of abusive behaviours inflicted on them by their partners, including verbal, physical and psychological abuse. Altogether, there were almost 8,500 disclosures of abuse and in many incidents, children were also victims or were witnesses to the abuse.

The vast majority of men - 95% - contacting AMEN had children, with 40% having three or more children. Some 107 of these said that they believed their children were previously or currently abused by their current or former partner. These cases were referred by AMEN to Tusla (The Child and Family Agency) as appropriate.

For more information on AMEN, click here