A CHARITY has experienced a 250 per cent increase in the number of children accessing its mental health services during the Covid pandemic.
PIPS, which delivers suicide prevention, bereavement support services and counselling, has seen a huge increase in the number of young people needing its help.
A total of 371 children contacted the service between March 2020 and April 2021, compared to just 106 in the previous 12 months.
The majority were aged between 11 and 15.
The charity, which receives no government funding, had to employ two additional counsellors, designated solely to deal with young people.
Older people have also been experiencing additional mental health problem during the Covid crisis.
Adult clients accessing the charity's services would typically be aged between 40 and 45. However, during the past year, those aged in their sixties up and into their nineties, have also contacted PIPS for help.
Such was the need for its help, PIPS charity, which is based on the Antrim Road in north Belfast, also had to set up satellite services in Enniskillen and Derry to meet increasing demand.
Renee Quinn, Executive Director, said the number of people accessing the service is "increasing dramatically and their needs and demands are also increasing".
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime situation, to live through a global pandemic and lockdown," she said.
"We are finding it has exacerbated people's anxieties."
Mrs Quinn said increasing numbers of children accessing the services were doing so for a number of reasons.
"You suddenly go into lockdown and you cut off all communication with the outside world," she said.
"It can be a range of things from anxiety and depression.
"We deal with suicide idealisation, they are thinking about ending their lives, or self-harming would a big issue. They are worried about isolation, and anger issues. We are seeing children worried about how Covid brings death to their doors. They are worried about losing family members and experiencing that feeling at a young age.
"Children don't have access to their hobbies, friends and they are worried about how the virus is going to affect their families so it manifests itself in not sleeping, anxiety, aggressive self-harm.
"Part of our response to the pandemic is that we have employed child and youth counsellors. All our counsellors are trained to deal with children and young people but because of the numbers we are seeing, we felt it was appropriate to actually have two members of staff dedicated solely to children and young people."
Mrs Quinn said many older people, aged from their sixties up and into their nineties, were also contacting them for help.
"They have lost a partner through Covid and they can't deal with that emotion," she said.
"The normal arrangements for funerals has been completely turned on its head and the bereavement process is completely different.
"A lot of older people are shielding and their only contact was maybe a food parcel so it was very isolating.
"We are seeing people coming to us for counselling for these types of feelings, which we wouldn't have if we didn't have a pandemic."
She said PIPS Charity had been accessed by almost 12,000 people during 2020/21, a 62 per cent increase on the previous year.
"We don't receive any government funding," she said.
"We rely solely on funding and some corporate support. We have not been able to access any public health money."
Mrs Quinn said between February and July this year, the statutory services, which are funded, referred more than 350 people to PIPS Charity for help "because they don't the capacity".
"They go to us but yet we can't get any funding and that is grossly unfair," she added.
"You don't open the wounds and leave the charity sector to pick up the pieces.
"We are never going to turn our back on them because they need us."
Looking ahead, Mrs Quinn said a "fully funded, fit-for-purpose" mental health service "that people can access when they need" without the red tape was needed.
"I want mental health to be so normalised that children can tell their parents when they are feeling unwell, just open and honest conversation," she said.
"We have come through a situation. We can recover and we can make it better but the services need to be available and accessible when the client needs it."
:: PIPS Charity can be contacted on 02890 808850 or Freephone 0800 088 6042
