ONE IN eight calls to the Samaritans in the last 12 months was recession-related, a report published yesterday has found.
Loneliness, depression and anxiety also featured strongly among the issues raised by callers.
Calls to the charity’s helpline were up by 9 per cent in the last year, according to the organisation’s annual report.
Samaritans Ireland Impact Report November 2010 to October 2011says more than 400,000 calls were received and almost 265,500 were dialogue calls. Dialogue calls, involving callers who speak rather than stay silent, were up by 22,000 on the same time last year.
The number of calls that were recession-related was also up, from one in 10 last year to one in eight.
Samaritans Ireland is a volunteer-led organisation that provides emotional support to people experiencing feelings of stress and despair. It has a 24-hour helpline, 12 branches and 1,300 volunteers.
The report said volunteers spent almost 56,000 hours listening to callers over the 12-month period.
The busiest time for the helpline each day was between 6pm and midnight and the busiest day of the week was Saturday.
Saturday, May 14th, was the year’s single busiest day with almost 1,000 calls to the helpline, according to the charity.
Issues raised by callers included depression, loneliness, alcohol, physical and mental issues, and suicidal thoughts or feelings, as well as recession-related problems.
These very often concerned financial insecurity.
There was a significant increase in the number of callers asking to reverse the call charges, of 6 cent from a landline and 33 per cent from a mobile regardless of duration.
A free number is due to be introduced by the charity next year.
The report also said almost 135,000 calls were silent or callers hung up.
These could represent someone checking the service is available, finding themselves unable to speak or calling in the hope of finding “the right” voice at the other end of the line.
Among the many projects undertaken by the charity’s branches in the last 12 months was one focusing on raising awareness of services among taxi passengers in Cork.
After finding out that taxi drivers sometimes worried about passengers after dropping them off, the Cork branch provided them with leaflets to give to passengers.
Suzanne Costello, director of the organisation, said the increase in calls had been quite sharp and showed the recession was placing a huge psychological strain on people.
“On a more positive note, we feel the impact of all the anti-stigma work that has been going on around mental health is having a good impact . . . people are coming forward in the earlier stages of stress and anxiety to talk about the problems they have,” she said.
She said recent research among working class men showed how unemployment badly damaged their self-esteem.
The charity was running a campaign to specifically encourage men “ to come forward and talk to the Samaritans”.
HELPLINE 1850 60 90 90 OVER 400,000 CALLS IN YEAR:
- More than 400,000 calls were made to the Samaritans Ireland between November 2010 and October 2011
- Almost 266,000 were dialogue calls
- Almost 56,000 hours of listening were provided by volunteers
- More than 700 calls were answered every day
- One in eight calls was recession-related
