CHILDLINE volunteers in Glasgow have helped almost 2500 young people across the country who have struggled to deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Working tirelessly from a hub in the East End, 116 active volunteers at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) have worked round-the-clock throughout the year to provide crucial support to distressed children and young people in need of help.

Youths revealed to Glasgow volunteers they felt isolated, confused and anxious about their future as calls from children suffering from physical and mental abuse spiked during the Covid outbreak.

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Lauren said: “I noticed the calls going up quite a lot and a lot of issues that people didn’t really think about in lockdown started coming to the surface. Young people were feeling a lot more isolated, vulnerable and at-risk themselves.

“We know that home isn’t always a safe space for children so not only were they locked in away from their school, friends and routine they may have been locked in with their abusers. They may have also been locked in with their own mental health issues and having had their support cut off.

“We were really, one of the only services available at that time and a lifeline for young people.

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“Some contacts were worried about the virus and what it meant for them so we would talk them through their feelings on that. Some weren’t getting the intensive mental health support that they were getting before lockdown and having it just completely stopped can be very scary for a young person that relies on it.”In July, a wave of uncertainty was sparked among young people in Scotland after high school pupils received their exam results.

Before 75,000 downgraded results were withdrawn, the Glasgow volunteers were there to offer additional support as the charity received an influx of calls from teenagers with grave concerns over their future.

Lauren said: “That was a very anxious time for young people – not only had everything been put on hold for them at that time, but they were also really unsure about the future. They didn’t know if they were going to get into the university that they had applied for or the jobs that they had applied for, it was a really worrying time for them after they had been working towards their goals for all of these years.

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“As adults there are so many different paths for us, but as a young person that type of situation can be very consuming. It really did feel for them as if it was the end of the world for them and we did have a lot of calls concerning the SQA exam results.

“A lot of young people felt that it wasn’t deserved after all of the hard work that they had put in. It was very much out of their control and the fact it wasn’t based on their merit created a lot of panic and uncertainty on top of the pandemic.

“I don’t doubt that this year has been one of the toughest yet for the young people in the UK.”

Key workers at the Glasgow office banded together to ensure the nation’s young people could still access the lifeline facility during the global crisis as the service faced one of its busiest years in operation yet.

Lauren added: “We weren’t sure how many ways we could run this service. But we were thrown into it like everybody else and we had to make it work. We found that people are so adaptable and willing to work to these changes, which we are grateful for.

“What changed for us pretty quickly were the numbers of people we could have in the counselling room and in the office. Then there were our volunteers and workers who had to shield and self-isolate.

“Before, we’d do calls side-by-side where supervisors would plug into a call to manage the risk during contact. If it was a particularly hard call, we’d offer support by placing a hand on a counsellor’s shoulder or bring them into a debriefing room afterwards to offer support.

“But now, we can’t do these things anymore. We found that a lot harder than the volunteers did I think, they seemed to be a lot more understanding while we wanted to go over to provide that physical support.

“We provide support remotely now from over the desks, if they’re on a chat we can look at the transcript and plug-into calls from our desks so as the counsellors can feel safe doing what they do best.

“I just feel that from March through to July was a bit of a blur. We really stuck together and grafted to keep the service going.”

Looking ahead to the New Year, NSPCC plans to expand on the new services it has established as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lauren explained: “What we are currently looking at is not so much plans around exiting lockdown but the plans that we have put in place at the start of lockdown are now growing arms and legs.

“Our emails are now being answered from home and that is a whole new base, named the Virtual Base.

“So we’ve got 12 bases across the whole of the UK and this is now our 13th base, thanks to lockdown. It means that we’re not limited to geographical areas if we wanted to recruit volunteers. That has been built from the ground up an that service will continue even post pandemic.

“We need to save every seat in the counselling room for live phone calls, so if we have volunteers able to work from home to answer emails, we’ll be able to reach more young people who need our service.

“Even though it has been a really challenging time for us at Childline, we’ve found a new path to help children and young people and the more of these youths we can help, the better.”