{"id":803791,"date":"2026-03-04T16:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/803791\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:41:19","slug":"support-needs-for-institutional-abuse-survivors-will-rise-as-they-age-mlas-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/803791\/","title":{"rendered":"Support needs for institutional abuse survivors will rise as they age, MLAs told"},"content":{"rendered":"

The needs of victims of historical sexual abuse in Northern Ireland \u201care only going to increase as survivors age\u201d, MLAs have been told.<\/p>\n

Fiona Ryan, the commissioner for survivors of institutional childhood abuse, expressed survivors\u2019 concerns about being placed in the care of the state as they grow older, and warned the intergenerational aspect of abuse \u201chasn\u2019t even been looked at\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) revealed sexual, physical and emotional abuse in religious and secular institutions from 1922 to 1995.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Sir Anthony Hart, who chaired the inquiry which revealed shocking levels of abuse in that period, recommended a permanent memorial, compensation and an official apology to the victims.<\/p>\n

Ms Ryan appeared before the Executive Office Committee at Stormont on Wednesday to discuss a report her office compiled which included input from more than 100 victims and survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201cChronic physical and mental health conditions are widespread. Victims and survivors tell us that almost every facet of their lives has been affected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also know there\u2019s an increased risk of further retraumatisation for survivors as adults from domestic and sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cVictims and survivors are highly reliant on general health supports, especially GPs, yet at the same time, they\u2019ve told us they\u2019re often reluctant to seek medical help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Ryan highlighted that the report makes reference to \u201cthe often neglected dimension of the impacts of abuse and intergenerational trauma, which is known to exist but is very under-researched, especially in the Northern Ireland context\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would offer that our findings demonstrate that survivor support needs are only going to increase as survivors age, and that survivors will need general and specialist supports throughout the course of their lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Ms Ryan later added: \u201cI\u2019d like to highlight for you the fact that survivors are telling us that they have real concerns about going into residential care as they age and these are very, very real.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine, you\u2019ve had such negative experiences of being institutionalised as a child, what that will mean for you going forward as an older person.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also I think there\u2019s a whole aspect that hasn\u2019t even been looked at around transgenerational trauma and the impact on survivors, their families, their relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several committee members including Sinn Fein MLA for North Belfast, Caral Ni Chuilin, and TUV MLA for North Antrim, Timothy Gaston, both raised the prospect of a \u201cprevalence survey\u201d to gain a better understanding of how widespread abuse was.<\/p>\n

Ms Ni Chuilin said that the current understanding of the level of abuse could be just \u201cthe tip of the iceberg\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn nationalist and republican communities, very often no one contacted any authorities when anything happened because of their own suspicions or because it may have been used against them in a sinister way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I know for a fact there are lots of people, I would say, maybe, over the last five years, who are probably looking for somewhere to go to try and get help.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her reply Ms Ryan said: \u201cI feel like the answer I want to give you is so massive because what you\u2019re talking about is a structural, systemic response.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if we keep pursuing tactical, piecemeal solutions, we\u2019re not going to actually give victims and survivors what they want and what they need.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI do think that a prevalence study would be useful to have, and it is about informing the system, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t actually look at what services are available to survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Gaston said \u201cwe have a lack of data, a lack of information to back up where the abuse happened\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reiterating that she felt a prevalence study was needed, Ms Ryan said: \u201cI think whatever would allow us to get to a point where we understand more about child abuse in Northern Ireland, historical institutional child abuse, other forms of institutional child abuse, then that has to be considered and should be actively considered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The needs of victims of historical sexual abuse in Northern Ireland \u201care only going to increase as survivors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[27009,232814,232815,232816,1144,26109,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-803791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-child-abuse","9":"tag-fiona-ryan","10":"tag-historical-institutional-abuse-inquiry","11":"tag-institutional-childhood-abuse","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-social-services","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116171904740290715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}