Abuse counselling line extends hours over Christmas
Connect, which provides counselling services for adults who were abused in childhood, is to extend its opening hours over the Christmas holidays to deal with an increase in calls.
The independent and professional out of hours telephone based service was established in 2006 following demands from groups representing survivors of institutional abuse.
The group says Christmas can be an extremely difficult time for people.
"Every year, we do extend at Christmas … for some people it can be a time when it can trigger memories of difficult times during childhood," said Theresa Merrigan, Manager of Connect.
"It can be very isolated time, and people can be very upset and feel very alone."
