Contact a Samaritan

Yes.

On the phone

This number is free to call from both landlines and mobiles, including pay-as-you-go mobiles. You do not need to have any credit or call allowance on your plan to call 116 123.

Via email

Emailing us on [email protected] is free.

In person

Visiting us face-to-face in your local branch is free.

By letter

Yes. But please make sure you include first line of our address to make sure your letter gets to us for free.

Freepost SAMARITANS LETTERS

Yes, Samaritans maintains confidentiality even after the death of a caller unless except in certain situations which are:

1. We have informed consent from a caller to pass on information
2. We call an ambulance because a caller appears to be incapable of making rational decisions for him or herself
3. We receive a court order requiring us to divulge information or are required to do so by nation specific legislation
4. We are passed information about acts of terrorism, bomb warnings, or threats to life
5. A caller attacks or threatens any Samaritans person including behaviours that are abusive/threatening and sexually inappropriate.
6. A caller deliberately prevents the service from being delivered to other callers
7. An identifiable child or an adult at risk are being, have been, or are at risk of being harmed, in which case we may contact the relevant services in line with our safeguarding policy.
8. When a caller discloses that action(s) they intend to carry out, that carry a risk of serious physical harm being caused to a third person (or persons), we will act to protect people from that threat when suitable identifying information is available. This will involve contacting the emergency services with or without caller consent.

On the phone

When you call Samaritans, your number is not displayed to our volunteer. The phones we use don’t have caller display information on them.

We might ask your name, because it’s a natural question to ask in a conversation, or because of something you have said to us, but you don’t have to tell us if you prefer not to.

Via email

If you've emailed us, your email address will not be shown to the volunteer.

In person

You don’t have to tell us your name if you don’t want to. In the unlikely event that you see the Samaritan volunteer that you spoke to later on the street, the Samaritans volunteer will not acknowledge you, unless you do so first. This is to respect your privacy and the confidentiality of your visit, unless you wish to recognise it.

By letter

We will need your name and address to reply, but to maintain confidentiality, your letter will be shredded once we have sent you our response.

On the phone

When you call us on 116 123, you will be put through to a volunteer at one of more than 200 branches and locations across the UK and Ireland.

We aim for everyone to get through to someone straight away, but sometimes this is not always possible as it depends on the number of volunteers we have on the phones at that time.

The number also won’t come up on your phone bill.

Via email

When you email us at [email protected], it may take several days to get a response

In person

You can check our branches opening times here. It can be helpful to call ahead and arrange a time to come in.

By letter

When you write us a letter we aim to respond within 7 days.

People contact us with all sorts of concerns and what might be a small issue to you may be huge to someone else.

You could be going through something new or have been struggling to cope for some time, either way, we're here if you feel you need some extra support.

If what’s getting to you isn’t on this list, please still get in touch.

Common reasons people contact us are:

• relationship and family problems
• loss, including loss of a friend or a family member through bereavement
• financial worries
• job-related stress
• college or study-related stress
• loneliness and isolation
• depression
• painful and/or disabling physical illness
• heavy use of or dependency on alcohol or other drugs
• thoughts of suicide

We won’t make decisions for you, and we'll support the decisions you make.

You are the expert on your own life. Our advice or opinions are not important.

If you want advice, we may be able to give you contact details for organisations that specialise in helping with specific problems and situations.

Are Samaritans religious?

We’re not religious. The link between our name and any religious text is completely coincidental.

Our listeners will never impose any personal attitudes or beliefs on you.

What if I'm d/Deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech impediment?

Callers who are d/Deaf or who have hearing or speech impairments can contact us for support by email by using [email protected] or by using the Next Generation Text (NGT) service.

Next Generation Text is not specific to Samaritans and can be used on any telephone number. You can contact Samaritans in this way using 0330 094 5717. For clarity, this service doesn’t work with 116 123.

What if I’m under 18?

You can still get in touch with us. We’re here for you, whatever your age. Our first responsibility is to you, not your parents or guardian.

You can talk to us about whatever is on your mind, we’ll listen. This might include how you look, problems at school or college, how people are treating you, and worries about exams or money.

What if I have mental health issues?

You can still get in touch with us. We provide the same support to people with mental health issues as we do for anyone else.

If you have a mental health diagnosis, you can talk about it with us, or you may want to talk to us about something else that’s troubling you, and that’s fine too.

We know that people with the same diagnosis may have very different experiences. We’ll explore what living with your mental health issue means for you. Your experience is the most important thing to us, not the label.

Because our volunteers aren’t trained mental health professionals, when you talk about your diagnosis or medication, we may not always be familiar with the medical terms.

Shouldn’t I talk to friends and family instead?

Some people do not have the support of friends or family. Others do have friends or family to talk to, but find that talking to someone neutral can also be beneficial.

We keep our conversations private, so we can't pass the information you give us onto anyone else and we won't judge or insist on giving advice.

We are here for you when you are struggling to cope and feeling suicidal. We know many people will struggle multiple times or benefit from talking to us more than once and that's fine. You can call us several times if you need to.

If you start calling us very frequently, we will limit the number of calls that you can make. This is because we want as many people as possible get the right support when they need it, to ensure that we can offer everyone a better service.

What counts as frequent calls?

By frequent calls we mean:

• If you make 100 calls or more within a rolling 30-day period.
• Or if you spend 20 hours or more within a rolling 30-day period talking to volunteers.

If when calling the helpline, you hear a recorded message “we would like to talk to you about how you use our service”, you will be asked to contact the Caller Support Team by leaving a voicemail with your name, contact number, and if we can leave you a voice message or not.

A Caller Support Officer will then call you back to talk to you about:

• how you use our services
• why you might be having to use our services more
• suggest other places where you can get help that will better meet your needs
• if a support plan can be agreed so you still get to talk to our volunteers.

If you do not call the Caller Support team, or we cannot get to speak with you, or after our conversation, we feel the restriction should remain in place then your number will remain restricted for 30 days.

If you've received a message asking you to contact the Caller Support Team, you can find out more information here

For more information about how we use your personal data, please see our privacy policy

Our volunteers are there to listen and provide emotional support to anyone struggling. We do not tolerate behaviours that are threatening or abusive in any way. Volunteers are directed to end a call if the caller is abusive or threatening towards them, or if the caller is performing or seeking participation in a sex act, or otherwise being sexually abusive or manipulative. We are committed to a zero-tolerance approach to these behaviours.

We act to prevent further contacts from callers who behave in these ways. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

Limiting or withdrawing access to our services

From time to time we may have to use the information collected about you when you contact us to make decisions about limiting access to our services. If we believe you are abusing our service or are abusive towards volunteers, we will use our system to block your calls or messages from getting through.

If you can’t get through by phone, you will hear a message that explains how to contact us to discuss our decision to block you from our system. You can find out more about this decision here.

If we take the decision to limit your access to our systems, we will make every effort to inform you as to the reason why we have restricted your access. We may ask you to give us a contact number so that a member of our Caller Support Team can call you to talk about your support needs.