Introduction to Samaritans
Samaritans is a national charity and the
co-ordinating body for the 202 Samaritans branches in the UK, the
Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, each
of which is an independent charitable organisation. This includes 2
“non-brick” branches (Festival and Correspondence). The branches
are organised and work together in 13 geographic regions to offer
emotional support to callers (see a
full list of branches).
Samaritans provides completely confidential
emotional support 24 hours a day by telephone, personal visit,
email, and letter, through its branch network – support that
includes outreach activity at festivals and outside our centres in
prisons, hospitals, schools, the workplace and with homeless
people. Our purpose is to:
- enable persons who are experiencing feelings
of distress or despair, including those who may be at risk of
suicide, to receive confidential emotional support at any time of
the day or night from appropriately trained Samaritans in order to
improve their emotional health and to reduce the incidence of
suicide; and
- promote a better understanding in society of
suicide, suicidal behaviour and the value of expressing feelings
which may otherwise lead to suicide or impaired emotional
health.
Most of the contacts to Samaritans are currently by telephone
(96% of all contacts), which are at their peak between 9pm-2am.
People contact Samaritans about a wide range of issues including
depression, relationship and family issues, loneliness, physical
and mental health issues, alcohol, drugs, self-harm, debt, illness
and exam pressures as well as suicidal thoughts and feelings.
The Listener
Scheme is a peer support scheme whereby selected
prisoners are trained and supported by Samaritans to listen in
complete confidence to their fellow prisoners.
Over the course of more than 50 years of
supporting people, Samaritans has gained a wealth of experience in
listening and communicating, skills which can be of benefit in many
situations especially in the work place. Based on this experience
Samaritans has developed a range of external training courses which
are offered to businesses to help them to improve communications
and in turn enable them to do their jobs more effectively.
In 2003, Samaritans took over the work of
maintaining the network of international centres that makes up
Befrienders
Worldwide. This is a network of 401 volunteer centres
in 40 countries across 6 continents, which provides help to those
in need of emotional support, in order to reduce the number of
people who die by suicide, and enable people to explore their
feelings in a confidential and non-judgmental environment.
Samaritans Central Office, based in Surrey,
provides support to the branches, the regional officers and the
Board of Trustees on a range of issues from caller care,
telecommunications, statistics, publicity and fundraising, to legal
and financial matters. It is also responsible for a number of
co-ordinating functions such as the development and maintenance of
the national number in the UK, the website, research, development
and evaluation, the annual conference and governance. There are
also staff based in Scotland and Ireland, who provide support to
those regions and advice on those regions to the central
charity.
Our service
Samaritans believes in confidentiality, honesty, 24-hour
availability, and the belief that callers have the right to make
their own decisions.
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Our Mission
Samaritans is available 24 hours a day to provide confidential
emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of
distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide.
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more