A MENTAL health support group based in Belfast has launched a new seven-day befriending service to help those struggling during the Covid-19 lock-down.
The Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide and Self-Harm (PIPS) has opened the new service which will see volunteers speak on the phone to those experiencing increased anxiety, low mood or who are in of additional emotional support.
The new service will be available seven days a week - from 9am to 9pm Monday to Friday and from 2pm to 6pm at weekends.
Paul McCusker, assistant chairman of PIPS, said the charity had launched the new service after seeing "an increase in people experiencing issues".
"This service will be manned by PIPS care team volunteers who will be operating seven days a week as a listening ear and also to advise and support".
Mr McCusker said PIPS had also seen an increase in "people experiencing poor mental health, struggling because of a lack of social contact with community psychiatric services and finding it difficult to cope at home."
"This will be a service where people can have contact with a person who will listen and reassure and advise," he said.
"If a be-friender then deems they need support, they will allocate a counsellor who will step up, by phone.
"The lock down brings lots of additional pressure on people who already finding it hard to cope day-by-day."
Mr McCusker added: "I have written to the Belfast trust on the back of the Southern trust setting up a mental health emergency assessment unit. It works with all the agencies. People can be assessed, de?escalated and supported better in the community. Belfast is in critical need of this facility."
**The PIPS Belfast Befriending Service can be contacted on 028 9080 5850
