One in Four calls for national abuse strategy

One in Four, the charity most commonly associated with victims of clerical child abuse, has found that two-thirds of its current clients have been abused within their own families or by someone in the community.

The charity was set up by Colm O'Gorman, himself a victim of clerical abuse, over five years ago following publicity surrounding the BBC Suing the Pope documentary.

Then, the majority of its clients were victims of clerical abuse, according to One in Four executive director Maeve Lewis. "Today, 64 per cent of our clients have been abused within their own families or by people they know in the community."

She said it had been a huge challenge to accept that people had been abused by priests, but it was an even bigger challenge to accept that most children who were sexually abused were violated within their own families.

Ms Lewis called for a national strategy on childhood sexual abuse. She said there had been separate responses to clerical and institutional abuse but there were voids in the system, particularly regarding familial abuse.

"Families struggle to get assistance from overstretched HSE staff, and often have to wait long periods for affordable individual and family therapy," she said. Ms Lewis was speaking at the publication of One in Four's 2007 annual report. The organisation provided more than 5,192 individual psychotherapy sessions last year and almost 2,000 hours of group therapy.

Full story at-http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0918/1221599468440.html

Alison Healy, Irish Times

© 2008 The Irish Times

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