A report by Mildmay Rotary Club on Paul’s recent talk at their meeting about the work of the Samaritans. If you would like a similar talk please contact us via the ‘General Enquires ‘ button.
Chelmsford Mildmay Rotary Club members were very privileged to listen to a talk given by Paul Stevens, the Director of Chelmsford and Mid-Essex Samaritans.
At our club meeting on 11 December, Paul presented a very short introduction to the work of the Samaritans, giving us information about the history of the charity, its aims and some of the ways in which it is a lifeline to a huge number of despairing individuals every year. In 2018, Samaritans volunteers spent over one million hours responding to calls for help.
The Samaritans are probably best known for their work with people so desperate that they are considering suicide. Paul told us that last year in the UK there were 5,821 deaths from suicide, three quarters of them male, with 45-49 the most prevalent age group for men and the 50-60 age group for women. Such shocking statistics underpin one of the Samaritans’ primary aims: the prevention of suicide.
However, the organisation’s help is offered also to a much wider group of people than the overtly suicidal. Anyone in despair or distress, anyone who needs emotional support, anyone who needs to talk through problems confidentially can contact the Samaritans.
The volunteers’ fine training, reinforced by the organisation’s ongoing support and mentoring, helps them provide this service, despite the emotional demands of listening to people who have reached a state of desperation. It helps volunteers to listen with quiet compassion without giving advice or passing judgements. The aim is to allow and enable people to work through their problems and arrive at their own decisions.
For many people, it is much easier to talk to a stranger than anyone else about distressing emotions, especially when they know that their identity is never known by the Samaritan listener and vice versa; everything is completely confidential.
It was very interesting also to hear what is involved in being a volunteer with the Samaritans, a listening service which operates 24 hours a day. For example, he or she would probably be working one three-hour shift per week plus one overnight shift per month. The volunteer would be one of the 20,000 nationwide who, between them, respond to some 5.4 million calls, 3,500 emails and 7,000 texts per year.
Always, the charity needs more volunteers as well as financial support for its work. It receives no funding from the government and its specialised, one-to-one services are extremely expensive. For example, the Chelmsford branch costs approximately £14,000 per annum to run.
Paul gave us much to think about – evidence of which is the way in which he was bombarded with questions at the end of his talk. He was eventually allowed to leave our club meeting, for of course, as he assured us, there is plenty of information to be found on the charity’s website!
We thank Paul very much for this excellent account of - and insight into - the important work of the Samaritans.
A link to Mildmay Rotary magazine
https://www.rotary-ribi.org/upimages/clubfiles/1399/MMs_320_final.pdf