A new therapy centre for Cavan as demand doubles
Teach Oscail recently opened a new counselling and therapy centre after demand for such services doubled post pandemic.
Area Manager of Tusla Cavan and Monaghan, Lisa Anderson, officially launched the new centre last month.
Manager of Teach Oscail Family Resource centre, Tara Lynagh, expressed her heartfelt gratitude to all those who worked to make the expansion a reality and attended the opening on May 15.
“Teach Oscail’s Counselling Service has experienced significant growth in recent years,” Tara said, explaining that they have established partnerships with Sligo Rape Crisis Centre, HSE, CMETB and Anam Cara.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current cost of living crisis there has been a 99% increase in demand for the counselling service.
Ms Lynagh outlined that this has “made it challenging for Teach Oscail to meet the local needs of the community, primarily due to constraints in funding, facilities, and staffing”.
Working in collaboration with Extern Cavan, Teach Oscail offers counselling services that provides support to the Cavan community.
The new Counselling Therapy Centre at 89 Church Street Cavan features six purposefully designed counselling rooms, which Tara said will provide a “comfortable session” and will foster “a sense of safety.”
“Our rooms range in size to accommodate both one-to-one and small group sessions,” she said, which will extend the services counselling potential from 42 hours a week to “potentially” 100 hours per week.
She expressed her “heartfelt gratitude” to all those who worked to make the expansion a reality, those who attended the opening day and the wider community whom they serve.
She described the expansion as a “lifesaving improvement” and stressed that “the life-saving potential of this new service is due to Cavan’s alarming suicide rate, being double the national average.”
Securing funding for these services remains an “ongoing challenge” for Teach Oscail.
“The escalation of rental costs not only effect the viability of this building, but also our main building, placing the services that we deliver to the most vulnerable in our community at serious risk,” she concluded.