CALLS FOR HELP relating to mental health services have ‘spiked’ in December according to charity Turn2me.

So far this month, numbers of visits to the mental health charity’s website have increased by almost 10,000 – a 20 per cent jump – which it said was “due to the mental pressures and stresses of the festive season”.

Co-Founder of the online charity, Oisin Scollard said the trend and its implications are “very personal” to him.

“Ten years ago, my brother, Cormac, was not well around this time and he sadly passed away three weeks after Christmas through suicide,” he said today.

For many, Christmas is a time to fear and a time to loathe. It puts people under immense pressure, financially in some cases, mentally in others. In essence, people need support through Christmas, and ironically most services are closed.

The site’s ‘Engage’ plan offers eight weeks of free online counselling with trained professionals to users and access to a mood and thought diary plan.

“The programme is now three months old and the results so far have been very positive,” Scollard said. “Our users are getting great support but are also progressing beyond Engage to other services and support options that they would not have considered beforehand”.

Turn2me will continue to provide services to those in need all throughout the Christmas season.

If you feel like you need to talk to someone, here are some other groups which may be able to help:

• Samaritans 1850 60 90 90 or email jo@samaritans.org
  
• Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634
• Console 1800 201 890
• Aware 1890 303 302
  
• Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie

Read: Wexford ‘bridge watch’ team responded to 20 incidents in past 12 months>

Read: Thousands gather to remember loved ones lost to suicide>