Tar Isteach North Belfast

JOE BARNES, COUNSELLOR, DECEMBER 2007   

 

 

 

This has been a very challenging year for the ex-prisoner community. The relatively early deaths and the onset of serious illness for so many within our community is a timely reminder of the tenuous hold we all have on life. It also raises many questions in this post conflict period about the true cost of the last 40 years.

 

This year has seen widely publicised legal action to establish how members of the ‘security forces’ have been traumatised by their involvement in conflict in a bid to seek redress for their circumstances. In more recent weeks there has also been TV coverage of how former soldiers who served in Malaya, Yugoslavia and the Middle East suffer from PTSD; their condition being unacknowledged and they unsupported by their employers. The programme also asked questions about the possible reasons for more than 300 suicides since 1982 among those on the British side who served in the Falklands War - more than actually died in the war itself.

 

Since the end of the Second World War and, more particularly, with the experience of Vietnam, the traumatic effects of conflict are now well recognised and established in the literature. In 2001, research by Tar Isteach in conjunction with UUJ outlined the experience of ex-prisoners in the aftermath of imprisonment some of which is quoted below:

 

• The fact that 58% of ex-prisoners stated that they are in either poor or very poor health;
• The reality that 78% of female prisoners stated that they are emotionally distressed;
• The reality of families coping with family breakdown and the loss of a parent, child or partner through imprisonment;
• The finding that three quarters of ex-prisoners have suffered from post traumatic stress disorders;
• The fact that 1 in 5of those ex-prisoners with post traumatic stress disorder have suffered symptoms 4 weeks prior to being surveyed;
• The need to challenge the stigma attached by others toward ex-prisoners;
• The need to challenge the above average levels of unemployment among ex-prisoners;
• The need to challenge the reality that 68% of ex-prisoners relatives believe that the negative impact of imprisonment still affects their relationship with ex-prisoners;
• The need to build services for the 86% of ex-prisoners and their families who wish to use the services offered by republican ex-prisoner groups in North Belfast.

 

The 2005 study, ‘Blocks to the Future’, commissioned by Cunamh in Derry, into the experience of those who took part in the Blanket protest, expands our understanding of the insidious complexity of trauma:

 

‘…challenges the dominant perspective of the post-traumatic stress model as the most appropriate model for understanding long term and complex political trauma,’ (Hamber, 2001 2003: Hamber & Wilson, 2003: Lykes et al., 2003).

 

While current clinical definitions relating to trauma are useful and certainly applicable to many within our constituency this study argues for the need for a broader framework of understanding. The problems and phenomena presented at Tar Isteach counselling supports this proposition and parallel the experience of others in post conflict situations throughout the world. In essence, the traumatic effects of conflict, torture and imprisonment can be debilitating in the extreme, deadly even, playing out over many years with the potential for transmission to generations to come.   

 

 

For the past 40 years, the ongoing process of conflict has obscured many of the less immediate, or indeed, less apparent consequences. As the research shows when outlining things like alcohol dependency, relationship difficulties, emotional instability, and suicide and self-harm, we see the results in a variety of forms and mutations but fail to make the connection. Our pursuit of conflict resolution is in danger of doing the same if we only focus on the absence of violence. It is important, therefore, that services are in place to address these issues. This has been the role of Tar Isteach and the other ex-prisoner groups to date. However, to be effective, it is also very important that our own constituency recognises and understands what has occurred and what is at stake for them, their families and our communities.

 

We are currently coming to the end of the second year in the latest phase of the Tar Isteach project. At the beginning of this phase we had a projection of 80 people over the 2-year period for whom we would provide counselling. We have surpassed that projection and in addition to the work we have done in the counselling room other activities have included help that we have given over the phone in terms of advice, referrals, answering queries, interviews, letters, e-mails and text messages. As with previous years, this has at times stretched our resources but we are thankful to Mickey Culbert for his continued help and support.

 

Once again referrals to our service have come from a wide range of sources. In the main these have been referrals from within Tar Isteach (Welfare Rights and Housing, Training and Education, and the Youth Project), the Ashton Stress Clinic, PIPS, Social Services, SureStart, TRC at Everton, RFJ, CRJ, Sinn Fein, Health Service workers, groups in N & W Belfast such as West Belfast Suicide Awareness and Support Group, Ex-prisoner networks throughout the country, families and self-referrals. We in turn have been able to build on work done in the past with other groups and agencies to refer on when necessary for our own client base.

 

We are thankful to the many individuals and organisations for their continued support and trust. It would be difficult for Tar Isteach to be as effective without the network of colleges and friends who collaborate to form a community of care for those in need. New Life Counselling Service, for example, provides a much needed expertise and referral route for children and adolescents; the Trauma Resource Centre too has been proven a vital link in ongoing work on trauma while groups in North, West and Shankill who support families bereaved by suicide are essential to the prevention of suicide and self-harm. Others, like the Healthy Living Centre, Ashton Stress Clinic and SureStart enable us to have access to a comprehensive range of services that complement our own work with people.

 

Tar Isteach has always been committed and proactive in the sharing of information and partnership working. It is gratifying to look back over the past few years and see how this has developed. We are, for example, currently co-chair of the working group looking at support for families in an intersectoral initiative on the prevention of suicide and self-harm. This is facilitated by HAZ and comprises of community groups, voluntary organisations and health professionals, including the most senior figures in mental health provision in the new Belfast Trust. Through the regional SSIB this model extends throughout the North. Tar Isteach sees its contribution to these developments as very important and to this end we have, in the past year been involved in many meetings, conferences, workshops and processes promoting the need for change in how services to address mental health issues are delivered:

 

We have been to Dublin, Derry, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh, and Tyrone at conferences and meetings; we have taken part in a development weekend for WBSASG group; we have meet with Ministers, Senior Civil Servants and Health Service Executives on issues of education and mental health; we have been part of the Family Forum that informs the SSIB and gives families bereaved by suicide a voice; and we are in contact with groups and individuals throughout the island on many relevant issues.

 

We have also attended a number of events in Belfast in relation to health, trauma and conflict transformation. Of particular note, however, was the Sinn Fein sponsored conference at Stormont on suicide. The significance of this being both the quality of the event and also the evident cross party participation, which is something that had been missing previously.

 

The launch of, Protect Life, in March 2006, the proposed suicide prevention strategy, was a major achievement resulting from years of campaigning. We are now one year on and while suicide and self-harm remain issues of great concern a process has begun to enhance co-operation, co-ordination, and better intersectoral partnerships for working together. Other significant initiatives have been the creation of 3 suicide awareness co-ordinator posts in N, W & Shankill, a 24-hour Helpline pilot, the opening of the offices of West Belfast Suicide Awareness and Support Group on the Falls Rd, and the announcement of the launch of a self-harm registry pilot. These are all things that Tar Isteach and its partners within the community sector have long lobbied for.

 

However, while Protect Life and the Bamford Review (1) have represented significant developments in mental health it is not all good news. As always funding is an ongoing battlefield. Many community groups, including our own, will come under pressure in the future. The years of campaigning on mental health issues and the publication of the Bamford Review notwithstanding, budget proposals for the next

three years indicate that twice as much money will be taken out of mental health than will be put in.

 

We continue to look for opportunities for training and personal development especially given the emphasis in regard to regulation of the counselling sector. It is proposed that from 2009 criteria will come into effect that will regulate the registration of counsellors. We are therefore seeking to ensure that Tar Isteach will be in a position to comply with whatever that will mean as we are committed to providing a professional and proficient service to all those for whom Tar Isteach is a valuable community resource. And we are grateful, therefore, to the HLC and WAVE for providing training on Trauma and Addiction in furtherance of that objective.

 

The whole area of counselling regulation has been ongoing for a number of years and it is hoped that in will be resolved sensibly. While the principle appears to be sufficient explanation in itself there will undoubtedly be problems for the future. One area of concern that has come up more and more this year is the nature of counsellor training and accreditation. There seems to a contradiction in the way courses require experience in placements yet there is little or no provision or help for such. Courses and supervision are also very expensive. There is a need for well-qualified counsellors but it is hard to see how that will be offset solely by setting criteria for regulation without resourcing training at the same time.

 

Earlier in the year we were subject to an Article 10 audit by the DSD. This was the first of its kind for this project and it is good to report that our systems, policies and procedures have received this kind of validation.

 

Tar Isteach’s counselling service is indebted to the other groups, organisations and individuals with which we have worked in the past, many of whom go unnoticed and unacknowledged. We provide a comprehensive and integrated service for our stakeholders that has developed a cohesive way of working addressing practical as well as psychological and emotional needs. Counselling at Tar Isteach would be diminished without the other facets of our organisation, their expertise and good working relationships with other agencies. Springwell House, and Carlisle House are some of those who remain in the background but whose resources are so essential to the overall mental health of our clients. So too is the willingness of the Housing Executive, GPs and the DHSS to work with our staff in a constructive and helpful manner. This is due to the personal qualities and professionalism of all our staff and needs to be acknowledged at this time.

 

1. Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability (Northern Ireland). The Bamford Review closed formally at the Making it Happen Conference held at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast on 31st October 2006. The Review, was set up in 2002 to examine how services for people with mental illness or learning disabilities could be improved.