We are Samaritans

Every 10 seconds, we answer a call for help. We’re here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Whatever you’re going through, a Samaritan will face it with you.

Samaritans helps people find ways to cope when life is tough. We’re not just for moments of crisis, we take action to prevent the crisis through our policy and influencing work. We use the power of listening to spark meaningful human connection, and encourage others to do the same.

Samaritans is a charity working across the UK and Ireland and it’s your donations that fund our life-saving work, and your support that helps make it possible.

About Samaritans

• We have over 200 Samaritans branches and locations across the UK and Ireland which work together to run our life-saving helpline.
• Equity, diversity and inclusion guide the way we work and behave.
• Our research and policy work drives change that helps save lives.
• We work in prisons, schools, hospitals and on the rail network to support people going through difficult times and train others to do the same.
• Our work is shaped by people with lived experience of suicidal feelings, self-harm or bereavement.
• Samaritans is a charity and our work is only possible thanks to amazing supporters like you.
• We support people by phone, email, online chat, letter or face-to-face.
• Samaritans' helpline is open 24/7, 365 days a year.

In Samaritans’ 70 years of listening, the people we support have always been at the very heart of everything we do. Our strategy reflects this, as we have built on the lived experience of people who have been affected by suicide and self-harm to develop our strategic priorities and principles.

Our work this year has also been guided by our strategic principles, which are the foundation of how we work and behave.

• Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
• Personal experience
• Safety and quality
• Evidence-based
• Vocal and visible
• Innovation and technology
• Environmental responsibility

• 1 in 5 of us has had suicidal thoughts
• Every 90 minutes someone in the UK or Ireland takes their own life
• In Great Britain, nearly four times more people die by suicide than in road traffic accidents
• Suicide is the leading cause of death for people under 35 in England and Wales
• Evidence suggests that the prevalence of self-harm has been increasing since 2000, especially among young people
• Males are three times more likely to die by suicide than females
• Suicide is not equal. Those living in the most deprived areas of the UK are at higher risk of suicide than those living in the least deprived areas
• For every suicide, it is estimated that 135 people knew the person who died

Sources

1. Office for National Statistics. (2023) Suicides in England and Wales.
2. National Records of Scotland. (2023) Probable suicides 2022.
3. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. (2023) Suicide statistics 2022.
4. Central Statistics Office. (2023). Suicide death rates.
5. McManus, S., Bebbington, P., Jenkins, R., & Brugha, T. (2016). Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014.
6. McManus et al (2019). Prevalence of non-suicidal self-harm and service contact in England 2000-2014: repeated cross sectional surveys of the general population. Lancet Psychiatry, 6(7)
7. Department for Transport. (2023). Reported road casualties Great Britain, provisional results: 2022.
8. Office for National Statistics (2020). Suicides by age and IMD quintile, England, 2010 to 2019 registrations combined.
9. Cerel, J., Brown, M. M., Maple, M., Singleton, M., van de Venne, J., Moore, M., & Flaherty, C. (2019). How Many People Are Exposed to Suicide? Not Six. Suicide & life-threatening behavior, 49(2), 529–534.