By Paola Pizzoli | Community & Corporate Engagement Officer
The Listener scheme is our peer support service, established in 1991, and now operating in prisons across England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and the Republic of Ireland. It aims to reduce suicidal thoughts and suicide in prisons.
People in prison are at increased risk of suicide than the general population. This is true internationally, for both men and women. According to the figures published by the Office for National Statistics, male prisoners are 3.7 times more likely to take their own lives compared to men in the community. As women account for just under 5% of prison population, it is difficult to estimate the risk of suicide in women’s prisons reliably. However, there is evidence to suggest that women in prison in England and Wales are up to 20 times more likely to take their own lives than women in the community.
At Central London Samaritans, we train people in prison at HMP Brixton and HMP ISIS to be peer-support volunteers – known as Listeners – for their fellow prisoners. Listeners offer emotional support to people in their prison. In addition, people in prison can access Samaritans' helpline. The helpline is run by trained listening volunteers 24/7.
Volunteers from Central London Samaritans attend HMP Brixton every Saturday and HMP ISIS every other Tuesday to provide support to the Listener so they can offload and discuss any concerns, enabling them with the support they need to provide their valuable service.
The disproportionate number of suicides in prison is of great concern. At Samaritans, we see the enormous scale of emotional distress in prisons – last year alone Samaritans provided emotional support to people in prison more than 300,000 times. We also see the wide range of concerns that underpin their distress. In prisons, suicide risk is a combination of life experiences before imprisonment and the pains of prison life. Many risk factors for suicide are reflected in the conversations we have with prisoners through the emotional support we provide.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
