Key Donegal counselling service to end as no public funding for director role

The Raphoe Diocesan Pastoral Services CLG Board of Directors announced the “complete cessation of its counselling services across County Donegal” on Monday, and said it did so “with profound sadness and regret”.

In a statement the board said the service offers the “only provision for child and adolescent counselling in the county”, as well as providing counselling services to adults.

Based out of the Raphoe Pastoral Centre in Letterkenny, the not-for-profit community-based service has provided support to thousands of clients in Donegal since 2010, delivering almost 15,000 counselling sessions in the last six years alone.

A total of 26 part-time counsellors, including 11 student placements, deliver the service in seven outreach centres — including Buncrana, Letterkenny, Dunfanaghy, Stranorlar and Creeslough.

Counselling is also provided by the Pastoral Centre at Hughie’s Corner in Carndonagh and Gemma’s Legacy of Hope in Dungloe, which are both community funded projects.

Clinical governance and management are provided by award-winning Director of Counselling, Liam Cannon, who is employed part-time one day per week but is standing down after 14 years at the helm.

The service has grown considerably with around 120 clients now receiving counselling at any one time, with more than 350 on the waiting list.

The board said that this rapid growth in response to surging demand for counselling has resulted in an “acute necessity for the funding of a full-time director of counselling and a coordinator”.

“Despite consistent, exhaustive and explorative efforts in recent months to secure much-needed rolling investment from the HSE and Tusla to finance these positions, it’s now been confirmed that no funding will be made available."

“Consequently, the Raphoe Diocesan Pastoral Services CLG has been forced to take the extremely difficult decision to wind down its counselling provision across Donegal.

Services at the Pastoral Centre in Letterkenny and at all outreach centres will cease to operate from mid-March.

The added: “The Board is fully aware of the devastation this will cause to clients, people on the waiting list, counsellors, support staff, students dependent on placements, and so many communities across Donegal.

"As the only counselling service for children and adolescents in the county, the cessation of this service will have far reaching consequences and create a dangerous void in the provision of mental health services for young people in Donegal.”

“It’s envisaged that the situation will become even more bleak for Donegal communities, as demand for counselling services steadily grows.”

They added: “The reality is that the loss of this vital service will leave the many thousands of people who need counselling with nowhere to turn. It will also undo many years of hard work invested in building the infrastructure and governance to deliver this service in local communities.

“It is deeply regrettable that adequate financing is not available to allow the continuation of this essential service, which has been delivered with the utmost dedication, commitment and professionalism by all involved.”

Director of Counselling, Liam Cannon, who has provided the clinical governance as well as designing, building, rolling out, and steering this exemplary service model, was to leave his one-day-per-week post on January 2, having announced his resignation in September 2023. However, he has remained in position temporarily to allow the service to continue under his clinical governance and to drive attempts to secure funding to appoint a full-time director and coordinator.

The failure to secure this funding leaves the service without the required clinical governance essential to its delivery, the board said.

The statement highlights how the service model is the only one of its kind in Ireland and has been acclaimed nationally as a perfect blueprint for the delivery of counselling services throughout the country.

Liam was awarded the 2022 Carl Berkeley Memorial Award and the Northern Ireland Regional Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Counselling/Psychotherapy Field by The Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP).

The Diocese of Raphoe has supported the service since 1992, with additional funding provided via charitable contributions and client donations. In more recent times, Tusla has part-funded service delivery for children and adolescents.

At no time has any public funding been allocated for the adult counselling service provision and no funding is in place for management, staffing and administration costs, the board said as it expressed its wish to “extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude” to everyone who has played their part in the “delivery of this essential service”.