Priority 2: Reach

Friday 21 November 2025

35 min read

Chapter 4: Priority 2: Reach

Working to reach all people at risk of suicide, so that everyone knows we’re here for them.

We committed £1.1m this year to drive progress in this priority area.

Speaking up about suicidal thoughts

One in four people will experience suicidal thoughts, yet stigma still prevents many from seeking help. A 2024 Samaritans poll found that while 74 per cent of people feel comfortable talking to friends or family about mental health, only 45 per cent feel the same about suicidal thoughts. This silence can cost lives.

For World Suicide Prevention Day 2024, we launched a campaign to show that talking about suicidal thoughts doesn’t have to be scary, and that it can save lives. Members of the public and high-profile supporters, including Rylan and Scarlett Moffatt, shared powerful personal stories. We provided practical advice from our Finding a way to say it guide, designed to help people open up.

The campaign resonated widely, was seen 8.2 million times on social media and generated 11,000 visits to our website. Our branches held outreach events in communities across the UK and Ireland, and it was covered by over 100 regional media outlets.

To build on this momentum, we’ve formed a working group of people with lived experience to co-design our 2025 campaign. Changing the conversation around suicide takes time, persistence, and collective effort. With your support, we can keep challenging stigma and help more people feel safe to speak up.

Turning Blue Monday into Brew Monday

We continue to overturn the myth of ‘Blue Monday,’ a concept created to sell holidays that reinforces negative ideas about mental health. Instead, we promote a day to reach out, have a cuppa, and connect with someone: Brew Monday.

In January, Samaritans volunteers hosted over 150 Brew Monday events across the UK and Ireland, handing out thousands of tea bags and sparking meaningful conversations.

One of our most visible events took place in the Houses of Parliament, attended by 60 MPs, helping bring our message to decision-makers.

In partnership with Three, we encouraged people to “take three” by spending three minutes connecting with someone over a cuppa. The campaign gained over 1.2 million views online and 280 media stories, amplifying the message that you don’t need a crisis to check in and chat about mental health.

Reaching across Wales

Connecting with young farmers, Our Farming, Our Future project

This year our work in Wales focused on challenging stigma and normalising conversations about mental health among people who may struggle to seek support.

Farmers face unique pressures that can take a serious toll on mental health, including financial uncertainty, isolation and long working hours. We partnered with Welsh farming support charity Tir Dewi on a project designed to reduce suicide risk in rural areas.

Working closely with local Young Farmers Clubs, the project called Our Farming, Our Future is using trusted networks to connect with young farmers, break down stigma, build supportive communities, and make it easier to ask for help.

We also launched Open Up Listen Up, a bilingual campaign to challenge male stereotypes that equate emotional expression with weakness and stop men from reaching out before they reach crisis point.

The campaign reached 165,000 men across Wales through social media. It was also advertised on YouTube, S4C and ITVX, helping to extend the message that it’s important to talk, to Welsh and Welsh speaking audiences.

As a man, it really resonated with me. We’re often told to ‘man up’ – but listening is the message we need instead.

Anonymous

10 years with the GAA

In 2024, we marked 10 years as the official Mental Health Partner of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Through this partnership, GAA players and former players work alongside Samaritans volunteers across Ireland and Northern Ireland to challenge stigma and encourage help-seeking.

This year, we secured the naming rights to Wexford GAA’s second county ground, now called Samaritans St Patrick’s Park. With an estimated 30,000 visitors each year, the ground will help raise awareness of our service and remind players, members, staff and fans that support is always available.

Samaritartan – a symbol for suicide prevention in Scotland

In 2025, Samaritans Scotland chose the final design for Samaritartan, a new tartan with interwoven lines reflecting how many of us are touched by suicide, while promoting solidarity and compassion.

The tartan is a wearable symbol for people impacted by suicide, a national identity marker for suicide prevention in Scotland, and a powerful tool for future fundraising and campaigning.

Our Lived Experience Advisory Group helped shape Samaritartan and its unveiling. It was previewed at the Scottish Parliament, before a Burns Night launch featuring a new poem by Edinburgh Makar, Michael Pedersen.

Twenty-six Members of the Scottish Parliament, including the Minister for Mental Wellbeing, attended launch events, pushing suicide prevention up the agenda in a creative, memorable way.

I’m in admirative awe of all the vital, life-altering, and deeply courageous work Samaritans do. …Suffice to say, Scotland, and the world, is a better, less lonely, more sentient place because of them. To have written a poem to champion them and help celebrate the arrival of their stunning new Samaritartan range is a supreme privilege. Long live the Samaritans (and Samaritartan).

Michael Pedersen, award-winning poet, author, and current Edinburgh Makar