PIETA HOUSE’S DOORS ARE OPEN
PIETA HOUSE has been saving lives from its Wexford town support centre for three years and during the current period of restrictions, its trained counsellors are still assisting people 24/7, but over the phone-lines.
The vital service assists over 100 people, aged from as young as nine right up to elderly members of our community in addressing suicidal tendencies and in the realm of providing support and tools for surviving the loss of a loved one to suicide, which kills more Irish people than car accidents each year.
Over the past year the biggest demographic of people calling have been teenagers.
Wexford Pieta House manager Pauline Lawlor said: ‘We are all working remotely at home. The big message I would like to get out there is that we are open for business. Yes the country is on lockdown, but we have a 24/7 helpline, 1800 247247, with trained counsellors who man that line. People can also text us on 51444.’
The service – based on Francis Street opposite The Friary – employs three full-time therapists, a manager, three part-time therapists and part-time administration staff.
Only 14 per cent of its funding comes from the Government.
‘We receive 86 per cent of our funding from the public so we hugely rely on fundraisers like Darkness Into Light which we have had to postpone until the autumn due to the coronavirus.’
Pauline said the four Darkness Into Light walks across the county raise in excess of €100,000 for the charity so their postponement is a concern, albeit one which will not see the services impacted once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted in the coming weeks.
The cost to bring one intervention client, who is suicidal or self harming or who may have made an attempt on their life in the past, through the service is €1,200.
Pieta House also offers support for people who have been bereaved by suicide, amounting to 30 free sessions.
‘The entire service is free,’ Pauline says.
‘We do take donations but we never want people coming to us to worry about money. We don’t operate a low cost system; it’s a free service. The last thing we want is a client worrying about having to donate €10, €15 or €30 a week for their treatment. The most important thing when a person is a client is for them to move from a crisis into a more steady state of mental health.’
Pieta House Wexford opened in May 2017 and had its official launch that October.
The team has grown from two to almost ten in less than three years and across the country 9,000 people are helped each year by Pieta House, including hundreds in Co Wexford.
‘It’s hard to put into words how amazing it is to see a person transform from not being able to identify one reason to live. To move them through that and for them to come out with a different mindset is incredible to see, That is not the end and they will be challenged later in life but we try to equip a person to manage their mood and to cope with whatever challenge might be thrown at them.’
She said staff train people to recognise when they are slipping into a bad place mentally. ‘We train them not to pretend it isn’t happening and to have a plan of action they can use .’
Among the people helped are children struggling to come to terms with the loss of a parent through suicide.
Play therapy is used, including drawing and art.
‘We try to help with the care of the child and to give him or her skills.’
Staff members are supported through the team and there is also external supervision.
‘We need support too because we are hearing particularly sad stories sometimes. Our staff never know what they are going to hear when they pick up the phone so there is a huge emphasis on self care.’
She said teenagers prefer to text the service prior to using it fully, adding that their texts are most welcome all of the time.
‘At the moment the under 18 age group are our main service users. School time brings a lot of issues to the foreground, including exam and peer pressure.’
Pauline said Pieta House Wexford has been busy fielding calls from adults concerned about the coronavirus.
‘It’s impacting on isolated adults. The normal, usual social supports that would ave always existed are not there. You have working mothers with small children who are used to the support of their mother and/or father. People are cooped up in a space with no respite. For a lot of people there is no structure and people are out of work. People think work is just about the wage packet but there is a social value and a sense of purpose also that has been taken away. We get a lot more than work from our salary.’ Pauline said both she and the team at Pieta House are very proud of the service they are providing day in, day out. ‘We offer phone supports and offer our sessions now over the phone instead of in person. Our clients make their appointment in the usual way and get a text 48 hours in advance. Some people might not want the entire 50 minutes; 25 minutes might do. Whatever the clients want that is what is important. We are taking new clients also who may have suffered a bereavement or be self harming and need information.
‘We don’t know how long this is going to last but when it’s all over normal service will resume. We are hoping it will be a very easy, smooth transition back in.’