A new outreach service for young people suffering from depression or contemplating suicide is to be started by the Samaritans in Dublin next month.
Volunteers from the counselling support group are to base themselves in the city's Temple Bar area on Saturday nights as a contact point for people in the high-risk 15-35 age bracket.
"We're trying to meet the people most at risk on their own territory," said Mr Liam Regan, branch director of the Dublin Samaritans. "The idea is to have a discreet, low-key presence on the streets. The volunteers will wear a badge but no fluorescent yellow jackets, or anything like that. We just want to blend in."
A street meeting point is to be set up under the initiative at which passers-by can stop to get information on the Samaritans and other services.
The group organised similar outreach initiatives at music festivals last summer. Nine out of 10 contacts at such events were from men, 75 per cent of whom were in the 15-35 age bracket.
"We've been offering a service in Ireland for 30 years and we have to think of new ways of reaching those most in need," said Mr Regan. If the street scheme proved successful, he added, the Samaritans would start doing it on a larger scale.
With 250 volunteers, the Dublin branch is the second-largest Samaritans group in these islands after London. It is one of 20 branches in Ireland, 12 of which are in the Republic.
"What we offer is emotional support for people in crisis," said Mr Regan. "We give people the time and space to explore their feelings of despair which could lead to suicide. The overriding feelings that we hear are those of loneliness and despair, and they can come from anyone."
He added that the philosophy of the Samaritans was "believing in the power of listening. Giving people the time and space to talk and be listened to is particularly important in this fast-moving world".
In 1999 the Samaritans took an estimated 330,000 calls in the Republic, 38 per cent of which were silent contacts and 56 per cent of which were from men. Some 8,300 drop-in contacts were made to branch offices and 1,500 volunteers gave an estimated 176,000 hours of listening.
In 13 per cent of calls nationally the caller expressed suicidal thoughts. Mr Regan said he believed the figure was closer to 25 per cent in the case of calls to the Dublin branch.
