A SUPPORT line and live chat service offering help to victims of sexual trauma has seen a 155 per cent increase in calls since the start of lockdown in March.

STARS(Sexual Trauma and Recovery Services) Dorset was forced to suspend all face to face counselling and support work to operate remotely due to coronavirus restrictions.

It is now expecting to see a surge in appointments as lockdown is slowly lifted.

And it has set up a crowdfunding page to raise funds to support its services.

The service is remotely training a new cohort of support line listeners and a new cohort of counsellors and it has recently trained an online assessment team.

Service manager Helen Stevens said: "Since the outbreak of COVID-19 the team at STARS Dorset has had to be so flexible. We have extended the hours of our listening support line service and our live chat capabilities and ensured our counsellor and independent sexual violence advisors have been able to continue to support our clients.

"We are anticipating a surge in referrals over the forthcoming months. Last year we supported over 1,800 people in Dorset and we want to ensure we are able to maintain this level of support and more once lockdown is fully lifted."

STARS Dorset offers a counselling service, an independent sexual violence advisor service, a listening support line and a dedicated children and young people service. All services are free.

The charity is currently running a Crowdfunding page to cover all the additional costs it has incurred during the pandemic and is expecting to incur going forward. If you would like to pledge support for the charity and all the work they do please go to avivacommunityfund.co.uk/sexual-trauma-and-recovery-services-going-mobile . If you are needing support or would like to find out more about the charity please go to starsdorset.org