Busy time for Childline volunteers at Christmas

Volunteers at Childline’s Prestatyn base will be among those working over the festive period, including on Christmas Day itself as children get in touch on issues including sexual abuse, family problems, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

The free and confidential NSPCC-run helpline is open to help children 365 days a year and demand is high across the festive period for the advice provided by its specially-trained counsellors at its 12 bases across the UK.

Across four of the main festive days last year – Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve 2016 and New Year’s Day 2017 – Childline across the UK delivered 2,490 counselling sessions, up from 2,353 on the same days the previous year.

Of these counselling sessions, at least 49 in 2015-16 and 77 in 2016-17 were carried out with children contacting Childline from Wales.

The true figures are likely to be higher with hundreds of children choosing not share with counsellors what country they were contacting them from.

On Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day last year volunteers in Prestatyn carried out 144 counselling sessions with children from across the UK, having carried out 209 on the same days the previous year.

In Cardiff, which deals with online-only contact from children, the same days in 2016-17 saw 50 counselling sessions delivered up from 33 the previous year.

Children’s mental and emotional health was the most frequently-expressed concern faced by Childline counsellors over the festive period, followed by family relationships and suicidal feelings.

As counsellors prepare to talk to young people in need of support and advice over this year’s festive period the NSPCC is appealing to the public to help them be there for even more children and teenagers who get in touch by phone, text or online.

To ensure as many of these young people as possible are getting the help they need the NSPCC is running its Light Up Christmas for Children appeal. To support the campaign all you have to do is make a small cash donation by sending a simple text message.

Childline founder and President Dame Esther Rantzen said:

“For most children Christmas is a time of happiness, but at Childline we know only too well there are thousands of young people across the UK who find it the darkest and most difficult time of year. They contact Childline to tell us they are spending the holidays surrounded by violence and anger, suffering from abuse and neglect, or wrestling with mental health problems.

“The good news is that while most of the country stops for Christmas, Childline does not. Our fantastic staff and volunteers will be working around the clock – including on Christmas Day itself – helping young people, some of whom will be in desperate need of support and advice.”

One Childline counsellor volunteering this Christmas Day is Jess Kingston who will be working in the helpline’s Cardiff service centre.

She said:

“Christmas is supposed to be a wonderful time for kids, but lots of them can be in a really dark place. They can be going through trauma so giving up a few hours to give them someone to talk to is my motivation for coming in.

“At this time of year we see roughly the same issues coming through such as depression, family relationships, bullying and suicide, but what we see is a lower mood at Christmas because it is a really rubbish time for them and those feelings start to intensify.”

She added:

“Any donations this Christmas will help us keep going and add more counsellors who can help children. For a lot of children phoning in helps turn their life around.”