The Journal.ie have reported that Suicide Charity,PIETA House is to take over the services of scandal–hit charity Console on behalf of the HSE.
All of Console’s charity services will be commenced by Pieta House with immediate effect.
Staff members will continue to provide their services under Pieta House, which will have discussions with all staff and contracted workers about their future work status.
The news was delivered at a delayed sitting of the High Court in front of Justice Paul Gilligan today and a HSE press briefing this evening.
Counsel for the HSE Rossa Fanning told Justice Gilligan this afternoon that an agreement had been executed between Pieta House and the HSE.
“The HSE believes that Pieta House is ideally placed to take over the services of Console,” Fanning said.
At the press briefing this evening, former interim CEO David Hall described the new provider as a ‘safe pair of hands’.
The services that Pieta House is to provide will be the 24/7 Suicide Helpline, the Suicide Bereavement Liaison Service and the Suicide Bereavement Counselling Service.
Pieta House says it is working on transferring the phone numbers of the services and will also be engaging with landlords of the current Console premises to see if the service locations can also remain the same.
“That would facilitate the ease of clients receiving the services as they are,” according to Pieta House CEO Brian Higgins.
Higgins also said that he hoped that people receiving bereavement counselling would be able to continue with the same counsellor.
“There has always been a warm handover of clients, so really we did feel there was an onus on us to ensure that clients will receive the best quality services moving forward,” he added.
Full report can be read here