THE head of Faoiseamh, the counselling service funded by the Catholic religious orders, has defended the decision to cap the number of therapy sessions for clients just months before the Ryan Report came out.A decision was taken in February this year to limit the number of free sessions to abuse survivors to 80 over a two-year period – roughly equating to one session a week for 18 months.
Faoiseamh general manager Michael Lyons said the decision was taken on foot of recommendations after an external review of the service. "It is in line with best practice models internationally and meets the needs of the vast majority of our clients," he said.
But, Mr Lyons added, extensions were granted in exceptional cases.
"Clearly every individual is assessed to determine their individual needs and sometimes they would get more than the standard, but the indications are that if somebody has received 80 sessions [and still require help] they may well need other kinds of services."
Some clients were referred on to psychiatric or addiction services, but Faoiseamh will not pay for such services if they are obtained privately and Mr Lyons acknowledged there were often waiting lists for the HSE’s public services.
"No clients would be left in a vacuum. They would be kept on if a therapist felt they needed to continue receiving help and there were delays in accessing services outside of Faoiseamh."
Faoiseamh has 800 clients and 600 therapists on its books.
A total of 3,700 people have availed of therapy and the phone helpline has received more than 14,000 calls since the service was first set up in 1996.
It was originally an initiative of the Sisters of Mercy, established in response to revelations that year about the Goldenbridge orphanage, but the following year other religious congregations came on board and now the service is open to anyone who was abused by any member of the 138 congregations affiliated to the Conference of Religious of Ireland, the missionary orders or the 26 dioceses.
All administrators and therapists are lay people but the orders and dioceses pay for the service, being billed every six months according to the number of clients and sessions for which they must take responsibility.
The service costs about €1.8 million to run a year, of which 90% goes directly on providing therapy and the remainder on administration and the telephone helpline.
Mr Lyons said the service was set up separate to any commitments made in the notorious indemnity deal signed by the 18 main orders in 2002 and would not be adversely affected by moves to get those orders to contribute more to the ongoing support of survivors.
He said a meeting had been held with the main funders – mostly from the same 18 orders – in the past few weeks and they had restated their commitment to financing the service.
"There is talk about putting a broad range of services in place – education and welfare, training and employment – and the Faoiseamh service could form the cornerstone of that."
Faoiseamh can be contacted at 1800-331234 or by email to co-ordinator@faoiseamh.com.
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