More children are seeking help
As ChildLine celebrates its 25th birthday (30th October), new figures show that the number of ChildLine contacts from local children troubled by suicide, depression and self-harm has significantly increased since the introduction of its online service.
In 2010-11, the first full year in which the online service was available, counsellors dealt with over 30,000 online and phone enquiries combined on these three issues. Of these, around 19,000 were online and 11,000 on the telephone. This compares to the previous year where counsellors dealt with around 10,000 phone enquiries on the same issues.
For the same period (2010/11) the Northern Ireland bases (Belfast and Foyle) counselled 2664 children about depression, self harm and suicide.
Of these 1660 contacts were online and 1004 were over the phone. This compares to the previous year where counsellors dealt with 757 phone enquiries on the same issues.