Samaritans (charity) - Samaritans' Work

Samaritans' Work

The core of Samaritans' work is a telephone helpline, operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Samaritans was the first 24 hour telephone helpline to be set up in the UK. In addition, the organisation offers a drop-in service for face-to-face discussion, undertakes outreach at festivals and other outdoor events, trains prisoners as "Listeners" to provide support within prisons, and undertakes research into suicide and emotional health issues.

Since 1994, Samaritans has also offered confidential email support. Initially operating from one branch, the service is now provided by 198 branches and co-ordinated from the organisation's head office. In 2011 Samaritans received over 206,000 emails, including many from outside the UK, and aims to answer each one within 24 hours.

In 2011 Samaritans received 5,020,006 calls for help, by phone, email, text, letter, minicom, Typetalk, face-to-face at a branch, through their work in prisons, and at local and national festivals and other events.

Samaritans stresses that the service it provides is not counselling, and it will not give advice. Although Samaritans volunteers are trained in many of the same techniques as professional counsellors, they neither judge nor tell people what to do. By listening and asking questions, the Samaritans volunteers help people explore their feelings and work out their own way forward.

Samaritans do not denounce suicide, and it is not necessary to be suicidal to contact Samaritans. In 2011, nearly 80% of the people calling Samaritans did not express suicidal feelings. Samaritans believes that offering people the opportunity to be listened to in confidence, and accepted without prejudice, can alleviate despair and make emotional health a mainstream issue.