Making our listening services the best they can be
We are more determined than ever to reduce suicide rates.
We know that the power of human connection can prevent suicide and that’s why we want to focus more of our time and effort on providing volunteer delivered compassionate listening services through phone and on-line chat to people in crisis, 24/7.
We answer a call for help every 10 seconds. Usually this is within minutes, but at certain times of the day, usually in the middle of the night, people might have to wait much longer. This cannot go on and this programme will help us improve this. Our ambition for the future is that no one will ever have to wait more than five minutes to get that vital help, whatever the time of day.
The evaluation showed that people who have used online chat to talk to one of our volunteers reported a significant reduction in distress immediately after the chat. Our volunteers also recognise that today’s callers value this channel and were supportive of our proposal to focus on this service and make it available 24/7.
We will continue to offer Welsh Speakers support on our Welsh Language Line, continuing our work to improve the service and build volunteer capacity with the long term aim of expanding operating hours.
We will gradually phase out other ways of contacting us such as email. While we know that usage of these services has been declining over the past few years we know there are still many people who use these channels to talk to us. We will phase out of these gradually and ensure that people are supported by our other channels or we will help to signpost them to other support lines.