Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 June 2012
558 Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Health the regulation he will introduce to deal with groups posing as non-judgmental crisis pregnancy organisations, which are in fact a cover for anti-abortion proponents and which are dealing with vulnerable women without any safeguards or oversight. [27788/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraWhile there are no plans to consider a regulatory licensing system, the approach adopted by the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme on this issue is, among other things, to further raise the public profile of State-funded crisis pregnancy services. In this regard, the Programme is working on a wide range of actions that include:
continuous promotion through the "Positive Options" campaign of the availability of free, non-judgemental and confidential State-funded crisis pregnancy counselling services. This campaign has been very effective in disseminating information on State-funded services. For example, statistics show that in 2011 72% of the target audience could recall the TV advertising. The website for this campaignpositiveoptions.ie received 68,483 visits in 2011, an increase of 37% compared with 2010, and 9,055 text messages were received requesting crisis pregnancy counselling information;
Section on the "Positive Options" website to highlight the actions of disingenuous agencies and to give guidance on how to deal with same. This section outlines the tactics used by agencies with a hidden agenda; provides questions for people to ask before they make an appointment to assess the nature of the service being provided; gives guidance on what to do during a session if people feel they are being pressurised or influenced; and provides a mechanism for people to make contact with a State-funded service or otherbona fide service;
Prominent advertising of "Positive Options" in the Golden Pages, including the regional directories, under "Pregnancy Testing and Counselling" and "Family Planning" sections. The use of a common logo for all State-funded counselling services in current editions of the Directories;
Funding of resources which provide clear objective information on the adoption process. The Programme provides information on adoption in manuals used in the training ofbona fide crisis pregnancy counsellors;
expansion of crisis pregnancy counselling services nationally by over 50% since the Programme was established in 2001;
Collation of data through State funded crisis pregnancy counselling services in relation to the level of incidence of clients attending their services who have reported previous contact with a "disingenuous" counselling service;
Piloting of a formal complaints process through the State funded Crisis Pregnancy Counselling services for capturing the experiences of young women or vulnerable adults who attend "disingenuous" counselling services and wish to make a complaint re their experience when they subsequently attend a State funded service;
Guidance for crisis pregnancy counselling services in responding to third party complaints they may receive about "disingenuous" counselling services as part of the above process;
Standardised training and up-skilling for counsellors in State-funded crisis pregnancy counselling services.
