NetWorks Issue 17: The Design Issue

Introducing CARI

As part of our mission to help more people and influence further, as a collective, we are delighted to announce that we have opened the Limerick Chapter of BITA. Alec Morrisey of The Limerick Post taking on the role as Chapter Chair in this exciting new chapter, and we look forward to becoming an important part of the local business community.

All BITA Chapter select a local charity to work with; raising awareness and sometimes fundraising. The Limerick Chapter have decided to support CARI, and we’d like to introduce you to this amazing charity, in their words..

For the past 35 years in CARI, we have been helping children under 18 years old, and their non-offending parents and carers, cope with the devastating impact of child sexual abuse. CARI provides specialised trauma-informed therapeutic support in a safe and trusted professional environment with access to experienced and accredited psychotherapists. We are there to help from the moment parents and carers first find out their child has been abused, until their children feel safe and confident again and are ready to face the world.

When a parent or carer first contacts CARI we offer advice and information and support them to manage their own trauma and shock. We enable them to start to begin to help their children to heal. We assess the needs of the family and decide which of our services going forward may be most beneficial. Our services include early intervention programmes for parents and children to offer immediate coping strategies: longer term regular psychotherapy sessions; ongoing parental support, and therapeutic support groups.

Because CARI specialise in working with children, all our rooms are warm friendly places, filled with toys, symbols, books and craft and art materials. This is important, as it enables children and adolescents to communicate in ways that make sense developmentally to them. We first help them to feel safe and stable so they can share what’s going on in their internal worlds and show us their experiences, and then finally help them to integrate their new understanding and feelings.

Unfortunately, finding continuous funding and support for an organisation specialising in child sexual abuse can be very challenging. Child sexual abuse is not an easy topic, and one people often prefer to avoid. According to the Sexual Violence Survey 2022, almost 3/10 adults reported that they had experienced sexual violence as a child. As such it is likely we have all been impacted either directly ourselves or through someone in our family.

Whilst CARI get some government funding, to provide sufficient services to children and parents we also need to raise additional funds. To address what often feels like an epidemic of abuse, we need to expand our services. Outside of Dublin, CARI is the only organisation that provides specialised psychotherapy for children under 12 years, and currently we only have premises in Dublin, Limerick and Wexford.

The impact of sexual abuse on children can be profound, leaving survivors feeling a sense of loss of being in charge of their internal lives. It can lead to terrifying flashbacks, nightmares, a feeling of disconnection from the world, their family, and their own body. It can leave feelings of self-blame, shame, and low self-esteem. Trust doesn’t come easy to any of the children and adolescents we work with. Whilst many of them of have experienced multiple traumatic events in their short lives, we as therapists are always left in awe at how brave they are in expressing their inner worlds and communicating their truth to us, and their drive and resilience in healing. Every day in CARI we witness children experience positive transformation through receiving the right support.

The mission of CARI is to ensure every child in Ireland who needs our services, wherever they live, is aware that there is support available to them. We want to ensure they can access the information, advice and therapy services we provide and that they deserve.

If you have been affected by the content of this article, or are looking for services for a child in your family you can call our helpline on: 0818 924 567.

If you or your organisation would like to support CARI, please contact our CEO Emer O’Neil on: 061 582 224.