No call for help goes unanswered

Core service - 24/7 emotional support over the phone (our national helpline is 116 123)

As you know, we have been providing emotional support services for people experiencing distress, despair, or suicidal feelings since opening in 1953. Our highly trained volunteers provide a free-to-call phone line, email, and webchat service 24 hours a day, every day of the year, as well as a drop-in facility and various outreach services aimed at vulnerable groups within the local community. We rely heavily on our amazing volunteers, but we also recognise that this achievement would not have been possible without the support of donors like yourself.

Your support has helped us remain open every day of the year, during which time we were able to provide our core listening and written support to over 43,450 callers. In terms of our volunteer recruitment and training program, we trained 107 new volunteers, contributing to the rise in active listening volunteers from 329 to 345 during the year ended March 2024.

Drop-in and outreach

Our drop-in and outreach projects are vital to ensure that anyone who’s struggling can access non-judgmental emotional support, free of charge. We aim to provide targeted support to some of the most high-risk vulnerable groups within our community, who are also likely to be disproportionately impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.

Our drop-in facility is back up and running, seeing face-to-face visitors, no appointment necessary, 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Although it has not returned to pre-pandemic levels yet, the numbers seeking support in person at the branch have been steadily increasing. We welcomed 1,120 visitors during the year ended March 2024.

In the same period, our volunteers engaged with 466 homeless people at nearby food drops and supported 217 prisoners during attendances at two local prisons. Our work in prisons includes training carefully selected prisoners to become Listeners for their peers in a bid to alleviate emotional trauma and loneliness and reduce incidents of self-harm and suicide.

Here’s what one of them says: “Being a Listener has helped with my own mental health and being able to put thoughts and feelings into words and communicate them.”

“I wasn’t a helpful person; I was selfish, I was judging others. I had a lot of anger and frustration about how people had treated me. I had this attitude of it’s me against the rest of the world. I didn’t feel like I was good enough. Doing this made me realise you never know what someone is going through behind closed doors. I appreciate people so much more now. I appreciate myself more too, and I feel proud of myself as a person. It made me a better person.”

“I wouldn’t be where I am now without Samaritans. I’ll be a stronger person coming out of here. Samaritans have given me hope. The way I look at life now, I can’t wait. I have so much to look forward to. I want to be the new me. Samaritans have helped me and so many people.”

We also supported 305 people bereaved through suicide who attended the online group sessions we lead. The mutual support given during these Facing the Future sessions is particularly valuable. One of our callers who attended our Facing the Future sessions said: "Facing the Future really helped me in ways I can't explain".