The Samaritans received almost half a million contacts – between phone calls and texts – last year, including from prisoners, Travellers, the unemployed, the diaspora and the wider public.
Its annual impact report published on Wednesday underlines the impact the pandemic had on mental health, with one in five callers worried about Covid and a third feeling isolated and lonely. Not only did volunteers, who man the phones 24 hours per day, take calls to the Samaritans but they also took calls from other charities, including Aware, Family Carers, LGBT Ireland and Alone, when their lines closed.
Samaritans is an all-island charity. In the State last year 69,587 volunteer hours were needed to answer 355,818 calls and 8,588 emails. Its busiest day of the week was Wednesday and busiest time of the day 6pm to midnight, when a third of a day’s calls are answered.
In Northern Ireland, 115,006 calls were answered requiring 27,946 volunteer hours. A total of 10,057 emails were answered. The busiest day in the jurisdiction was Tuesday and busiest time of the day was again 6pm to midnight, when a third of calls are answered.
There were 19,634 calls from prisoners with most due to loneliness and isolation exacerbated by restrictions on visits due to the pandemic. The charity trained 73 inmates to be “listeners” within the prison system. These made 1,074 “listener contacts” with fellow inmates in emotional distress.
In Northern Ireland, volunteers answered 3,050 calls from the prison population and listeners in two prisons handled 12 contacts of support to their fellow prisoners.
“Samaritans is hugely thankful to Irish Prison Service and the Northern Irish Prison Service for their continued support of our work in prisons,” said a spokeswoman.
Through its emigrant support programme Samaritans provides freephone helpline to the diaspora in the United Arab Emirates, China, Hong Kong, Poland, Canada and Australia. “The purpose of this project is to provide the Irish abroad who are in distress and struggling to cope with access to culturally sensitive emotional support,” the spokeswoman said.
“In 2021, callers from outside Ireland received nine hours of support, of which six hours’ support were offered to 18 calls from Poland, and 2½ hours’ support was offered to seven calls from the UAE.” The cost of these calls is footed by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The report also outlines collaborative work the Samaritans do with Travellers, which have the highest suicide rates of any community, and the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler publishing the report said it showed the level of support “given to some of the most marginalised in society, through training, awareness and emotional support”.
“I want to thank the volunteers for being there for others during their darkest hours,” she said.
The Samaritans can be contacted on freephone: 116 123 or email: jo@samaritans.ie
