Annual Report 2020

07 September 2021

1559_DRCC_AnnualReport_WEB
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You can also read a Statistical Summary of 2020 figures. 

Headline statistics from DRCC Annual Report 2020

National 24-Hour Helpline

  • In 2020, there were 13,438 contacts to the National Helpline. Most were first-time contacts (6451) with 5,349 in touch for a second or subsequent time and 1,638 undisclosed.
    • In terms of gender, 83% of contacts were female, 16.8% male and 0.2% other.
    • Almost two-thirds of contacts were Dublin-based (63.7%) with just under a third (36.3%) elsewhere in Ireland.
    • There was a range and spread of ages among contacts to the Helpline, from under 16 to over 70. Most people contacting us were Irish (96.2%).
  • From October 2020 we piloted a new online support via Webchat, initially with limited hours a few days a week – by year’s end we had supported 105 people.

Therapy & Counselling

DRCC’s counselling and therapy services had to pivot completely from exclusively delivered face-to-face to fully online or by phone.

  • DRCC had 570 clients in 2020, of which 268 were new in that year and 302 ongoing clients.
  • Some 92.5% of clients were female, 7.5% were male.
  • Our therapists delivered 6,010 appointment sessions to clients over the year.
  • Some 61.5% of DRCC clients disclosed sexual violence experienced as adult, and the remaining 38.5% had been abused as children – 5% had been subjected to sexual violence as a child and an adult.
  • Many of the 268 new clients who engaged with our therapists for the first time in 2020 had also suffered other types of violence:
    • For those subjected to sexual violence as adults, 32.2% also reported physical abuse, 29% reported psychological abuse and 25.8% reported harassment and intimidation.
    • Some 8.6% had been threatened with killing and actual attempts had been made to kill 1.1 percent.
    • For those who had been abused as children, almost 40% had also been abused psychologically, and just over 30% had been harassed or intimated, with 22.7% being abused physically.
    • Most new clients in 2020 had known the person who raped or assaulted them – 75% of those reporting abuse as adults and 90.8% of those abused as children.
    • Some 36% of these new clients had reported the crimes done to them to Gardaí. The remainder had not.