WEST Cork Counselling and Support Services (WCCSS) is facing closure as a funding crisis threatens vital mental health supports.

The service in Dunmanway, along with outreach services in Skibbereen and Clonakilty, has been threatened with imminent closure after the HSE withdrew funding.

For 20 years it has offered confidential, professional counselling to individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, relationship difficulties, and other mental health challenges.

The service, the only one of its kind in the West Cork area, has played a crucial role in supporting people who might otherwise be unable to access timely mental health care.

Despite increasing demand for counselling, the organisation has insufficient funding to continue and will be unable to sustain operations beyond the end of September 2026.

‘We are devastated to be facing this situation,’ said Teresa O’Sullivan, chairperson of WCCSS. ‘Many of our clients cannot afford private counselling and rely entirely on our service. Without urgent financial support, this lifeline will disappear.’

Staff and volunteers fear that closure would leave vulnerable individuals with few alternatives and place additional pressure on already stretched health and social care services.

‘We know that early intervention works,’ said Geraldine Burke, lead counsellor with the service. ‘Counselling changes lives, prevents crises, and helps people build resilience. The loss of this service would be felt across the entire community.’

The organisation is now calling on government agencies to work to secure the funding necessary to keep the service operating.

‘Mental health support should not depend on whether a community can find emergency funding every year,’ said Teresa.

‘We remain committed to our clients and are hopeful that a solution can be found before this essential service is lost.’

Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins TD described the funding cut as ‘financially and morally indefensible’.

He warned that the decision ‘tears the financial rug out from under one of the region’s most vital providers of community mental health supports’.

The service acts as a crucial referral and signposting hub for GPs and community organisations, and currently supports 77 clients, with a further 29 on waiting lists.

‘What is really galling is that this will not save costs,’ said Deputy Collins. ‘All it will do is shift the costs on to families, GPs, emergency departments, and ultimately on to individuals who will suffer.’

The service currently receives €64,890 in Section 39 core funding from Primary Care.

In recent years it also relied on an additional €20,000–€30,000 in non core funding to keep its doors open.

All funding has now been completely withdrawn.

The Southern Star understands that WCCSS has spent the past 18 months engaging constructively with the HSE, submitting a full business case and providing any information requested.

The funding cut was also raised at a council meeting this week by Cllr Deirdre Kelly (FF) and Cllr Isobel Towse (SD). Cllr Towse said: ‘You could be waiting over a year to get referred for psychotherapy on a public waiting list.

‘As someone who accessed the same services from a similar charity when I was in college in Cork city, I really understand just how vital the services of West Cork Counselling and Support Services are.

‘We also need to consider the local job losses, and the loss of valued professional relationships and support networks that have been built up between organisations on the ground. The impact that the loss of this service will have on West Cork can’t be underestimated.’