Rape Crisis North East in partnership with Drogheda Women & Children’s Refuge and Meath Women’s Refuge & Support Services have launched a new sexual violence service in Meath and are expanding the service in Drogheda.
The initiative is funded by Tusla Child & Family Agency and led by Rape Crisis NE. The counselling service will be available to anyone over the age of 14 years in Drogheda and Meath.
The initiative was born in recognition of the fact that both Meath and Drogheda were under resourced in terms of specialised sexual violence counselling service.
This new service in Meath and enhanced service in Drogheda will bring much needed specialised support to survivors of sexual violence in their locality. The funding provides for a specialised counsellor in Meath 4 days a week and 2 additional days support in Drogheda.
The specialised sexual violence counsellors will be primarily responsible for delivering one-to-one counselling and support to clients both adults and young people presenting issues relating to sexual violence and rape in the new outreach in Drogheda and other possible locations.
Grace McArdle, RCNE Manager said “Our new location in Co. Meath and the expansion of our counselling services in Drogheda will help us continue to grow and develop to meet the needs of survivors of rape and sexual violence.
“This will allow us to provide an exceptional and superior service for clients as we go forward now that we are working collaboratively with Meath Women’s Refuge and Support Services and Drogheda Women & Children’s Refuge”.
In 2022, RCNE offered 1,703 counselling appointments to survivors of rape & sexual violence. 61% of those counselling appointments were provided to clients living in Co. Louth and 15% from Co. Meath. 2,345 helpline calls were addressed by RCNE helpline supporters. 74% of contacts were from Co. Louth and 15% from Co. Meath. RCNE currently have a waiting list of clients particularly from Drogheda and Co. Meath in urgent need to receive counselling and support.
Rape Crisis North East have identified that the “waiting lists” are the main barrier for survivors of Rape and Sexual Violence to accessing RCC services living in Meath and Drogheda.
Grace McArdle, Manager of RCNE highlighted “We have clients from parts of Meath having to take 3 buses to get to our Rape Crisis Counselling Services and 3 buses to return home to receive one hour of counselling support on a weekly basis. This is simply just not good enough. Rape Crisis North East should be accessible to everyone in Louth, Meath, Monaghan and Cavan”.
