Rape Crisis Centres in the south-east are pooling resources to meet increasing demand for their services. Counsellors say services remain relatively inaccessible for significant numbers who do not live in the main population centres. There are five centres in the region.
The Tipperary Rape Crisis Centre is to share information and expertise with centres in Kilkenny, Carlow and Waterford, as well as the Wexford Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Services.
"It makes sense for the five of us to support each other," says Ms Maura Barry, administrator of the Tipperary centre. "Issues come up on a day-to-day basis, such as client confidentiality and funding. We share ideas about how we operate. Another area we're examining at the moment is statistics, how we're keeping them and how we use them." The cost of training programmes is also to be shared where possible.
Innovations like this are necessary because, despite growing recognition of the need for the services they provide, Rape Crisis Centres continue to be underfunded. The Tipperary centre received an increased grant of £64,000 from the South Eastern Health Board last year, about two-thirds of its running cost.
The rest is raised by voluntary effort, restricting the ability of staff to concentrate on the core service they provide, counselling and support for survivors of rape, sexual assault and child abuse. "The work we do is so difficult that it makes it even more so when you have to worry about funding on a continual basis," says Ms Barry.
A counsellor at the centre, Ms Elaine Crotty-Kane, adds that the centre provides additional services such as educational workshops.
"Because of the lack of funding we have to cut back sometimes on things that could be really beneficial. You have to do what you're doing well and not stretch resources too much.
"But we would like to do more, such as go to schools and organisations and provide information about how to deal with disclosures and things like that. We would also like to have more support groups."
Opened in 1986 as a support group for women who had been raped or sexually abused, the centre has steadily expanded its services and now offers counselling to about 30 clients each week, almost as many as came through its doors in the first year.
Last year it received more than 1,300 calls, and about 70 per cent of its clients were victims of child abuse. The rest were adult victims of rape and sexual assault. About 30 per cent of clients are men.
An increasing trend, according to Ms Barry, has been the number of young people who were victims of sexual abuse and are now addicted to alcohol or drugs, or are suffering from eating disorders. New approaches, she believes, may be needed to support these people.
"There are places where young people can go and look at their addictions only. Sometimes that doesn't work. We see a real need for a residential place where clients can look at their addictions and also at the abuse and address the two together."
There is a danger, she believes, of a young person with an addiction problem and a background of child abuse feeling even more isolated than before when placed in a residential centre with other addicts who have different problems.
Despite the increase in demand, the Tipperary Rape Crisis Centre operates with just five part-time staff, who put in full-time hours, and four voluntary counsellors. The service is free.
Counsellors must undergo a 150-hour training programme and, with the jobs market buoyant, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract volunteers. Even so, the Tipperary centre hopes to establish an outreach centre in Carrick-on-Suir and perhaps, at a later stage, another in Cashel, to make its services as accessible as possible.
The centre recently extended its opening hours to facilitate people unable to come during normal office hours. The Waterford Rape Crisis Centre, which recorded a 29 per cent increase in calls from the public last year, offers a 24-hour confidential helpline with a counsellor on call 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The Tipperary Rape Crisis Centre is at 20 Mary Street, Clonmel, and can be contacted at (052) 27677. It opens late on Mondays and Thursdays and also on Saturday mornings. It welcomes calls from women interested in doing voluntary work. The Waterford Rape Crisis Centre freephone number is 1800 296 296.
The Kilkenny Rape Crisis Centre is at (056) 51555; South Leinster Rape Crisis Centre at (0503) 33807 and Wexford Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Services at (053) 22722.
