A telephone support service for adults who were abused in childhood has seen a big increase in callers over the last three years.

Connect Counselling is a free out-of-hours telephone counseling and support service for adults who were abused, traumatised or neglected as children. New figures have shown that over the past three years, there has been a 42% increase in individual callers to the service.

The total number of calls made to the service between January and November of this year was 8,113, with just under 5,000 of these answered. Almost 2,500 calls were made when the service was closed, while over 700 calls were lost.

By year end, the service expects to have received around 9,000 calls - a 25% increase on 2014's figure. Over half of these calls have come from first-time callers.

According to service director, Theresa Merrigan, these increases are probably due to more awareness of Connect and also the fact that it is an anonymous service, ‘which is comforting to people who are beginning to speak of childhood abuse, but not yet ready to attend face-to-face counselling'.

"For many people who have suffered childhood abuse, beginning to speak of those experiences can bring feelings of shame, embarrassment, guilt and fear of judgement.

"The Connect Service can be a safe port to begin to put words on traumatic childhood experiences, where the caller who initiates the contact can remain anonymous, while at the same time receiving support from a professionally experienced psychotherapist," she explained.

She also pointed out that the service is of particular use to people who may find it hard to attend face-to-face counselling because of issues such as geographical location, childcare or lack of transport.

Among callers in 2015, the most common setting for abuse was within the family (48%), followed by within the community (31%) and institutional abuse (15%). However, institutional abuse tended to be more common among callers over the age of 50 (23%).

When it came to family abuse, 24% were abused by their father, of which over 12% was sexual. Some 21% were abused by their mother and this was mainly emotional and physical abuse.

Some 11% were abused by their brothers, 10% of which was sexual.

Overall, the most common type of abuse seen in families was emotional (58%), followed by sexual (55%), physical (30%) and neglect (15%).

Almost two in three callers were female and the highest proportion of callers (41%) were aged between 31 and 50.

Almost one in four callers said they suffered with low moods and depression, 20% had severe anxiety and 10% were dependent on alcohol.

Connect is funded by the HSE and is open from 6pm to 10pm, Wednesday to Sunday, with additional opening hours during times of high demand. The number is 1800 477 477.

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