An update from Samaritans

Life can be very tough, and we continue to live through uncertain and worrying times. We’re concerned about the rising cost-of-living and its impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing.Due to the rises in food, energy and fuel costs, many people are finding it harder to make ends meet, and may find themselves struggling to cope. Our 24/7 emotional support service is needed now, more than ever.

However, there is still a stigma amongst many people around talking about money worries. Loss of pride, vulnerability and feelings of failure can lead many people to not open up to family and friends about these worries.

In August, September and October 2022, more than 1 in every 14 calls for help to Samaritans where emotional support was offered were about concerns related to finance and unemployment. This is up from roughly 1 in 16 last year and the highest proportion we have seen for at least five years. We’re also hearing anecdotal evidence from our volunteers that people are contacting Samaritans because they’re worried about the rising cost-of-living.

Keith, a listening volunteer at our Wigan branch said:

“It's been a difficult two years, with people losing loved ones and being isolated due to the pandemic. However, in recent weeks, I have received several calls from people concerned about paying for food and energy bills. I've listened to anxious callers worried about providing even the basic essentials for their families. These include feeling like they have failed and let down their children. Also, a sense of shame for using a foodbank for the first time. Those most vulnerable will have been impacted the most by Covid. The rise in taxes, food and energy costs is yet another blow to people already struggling.”

Suicide is complex and is rarely caused by one thing. However, there is strong evidence of associations between financial difficulties, mental health, and suicide.

We know that suicide is an inequality issue – people on the lowest incomes have a higher suicide risk than those who are wealthier, and people on lower incomes are also the most affected by rising prices and other types of financial hardship. It is as important now as it has ever been that people who are seeking help with their money are also offered help with their mental health, and vice versa. We need to ensure that our volunteers can continue to be there, day or night, for anyone who is struggling to cope. We’re the only charity who provide life-saving emotional support, 24/7.

With your vital continued support, our services can be there for people whatever they are facing, be it cost-of-living related or something else. You help to ensure that they don’t have to face it alone, a Samaritan is there to face it with them. Thank you. We’re so grateful.

This year we know that things are really tough. Many people are finding it harder to make ends meet and we’re concerned about the huge impact this will have on people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Suicide is complex and is rarely caused by one thing. However, there is strong evidence of associations between financial difficulties, mental health, and suicide.

This winter, Samaritans is launching our most ambitious integrated fundraising campaign to date, to get people talking about the ‘S’ word.

As a highly trusted supporter, we wanted to give you an exclusive preview of the campaign, as well as what you can expect to see from us in the coming weeks.

Break The Silence is a fundraising campaign with an ambitious £500,000 target, which aims to get people talking about suicidal feelings to help prevent those struggling from reaching crisis point. It will run until 6 January 2023.

The campaign includes a series of short videos featuring four callers talking about how they were struggling to cope and broke their silence by calling Samaritans. You can watch the videos here.

A television advert has also been produced to run in unison with the campaign. Entitled, ‘Silence is painful,’ it will air on ITV Digital, Sky Media amongst other channels. The advert sees a middle-aged male actor, who represents the age group who experience the highest average suicide rate of any age category, in the dark, in the middle of the night surrounded by silence. As the lights switch on, he struggles to break his silence and gradually manages to speak to camera to reveal his personal journey and show he’s now a Samaritans volunteer answering calls. The campaign will also include direct marketing letters delivered to 26,700 UK households.

The TV ad will run on channels including ITV3, ITV4, ITVBE, E!, Sky Comedy, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Documentaries, Sky News, Sony Entertainment and many other TV stations.

Too often, the truth of how we feel remains locked up inside of us. But staying silent costs lives, every single day. Suicide is preventable and talking to Samaritans about suicidal feelings can stop it. We can save lives if we can break the silence.

Every year, organisations and communities around the world come together on 10 September for World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), to raise awareness of how we can create a world where fewer people die by suicide.

The latest statistics show that in 2020 in the UK, more than 6,221 people died by suicide. Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy. And we know that suicide is preventable, it’s not inevitable. At Samaritans, WSPD is an important awareness raising day, and provides us with the opportunity to remind people of our lifesaving service, suicide prevention and provide advice on how people can take care of themselves and others.

This year, our messaging focussed on breaking the stigma around suicide and letting people know that it’s ok to talk about suicide as it could save a life. It featured the common myths and taboos surrounding suicide, as well as caller Taylor’s story.

“I think it’s incredibly important to be asked if you’re feeling suicidal, purely because this question actually changed my life, it made me kind of articulate my thoughts and feelings out loud. As much as it’s not what you want to be talking about or what you want to be hearing, it can change your life.

“With my own personal experience, even though the thoughts were there, it wasn’t necessarily that I didn’t want to continue living, I just didn’t want the situation I was in to continue.

“Recognising that difference between the two gave me confidence and It really changed my mindset, and now, thinking back, I feel like it gave me that first step to getting back to who Taylor was.” Taylor Samaritans’ caller

Throughout the day, caller awareness adverts were shown on billboards throughout England and Scotland. Scarlet Moffat and Jason Flemyng, and English Tenor star and Samaritans’ Ambassador Alfie Boe visited our Central London Branch to meet our volunteers and hear more about our work. We also secured WSPD coverage in Glamour, Happiful and on BBC Radio Surrey.

On Thursday 8 September we also held webinars ahead of the day specifically for our corporate partners. These focused on busting the myths about suicide and were attended by more than 200 people, some of whom were inspired to think about volunteering for us:

“A really great eye-opening session with lots of facts and insight into such a serious and important topic. I like how they kept things interactive, and it even made me go on to their site and think about volunteering as a telephone listener.” Webinar attendee

"I started Loughborough university in 2017 and in my first year, I was in halls. I met a boy called Miles through my flatmates. Miles lived in an all-boys flat and I was in an all-girls one – we merged to make a big friendship group. Miles was always someone who was really caring and sweet towards us – he looked out for us on nights out. Miles started struggling with his mental health.

“In second year of uni, this started becoming more noticeable and we all noticed a real shift in Miles. Even in his face, he looked sadder. It was a really difficult time for us all and we tried our hardest to support him in the ways we knew how. Miles took his own life on October 5th, 2021.

“We had a really open friendship group and we all knew how Miles was feeling. None of us felt remotely qualified to support Miles and out of our depth in some senses. We couldn’t fully understand what he was going through.

“It’s important that Samaritans are available 24/7 – NHS waiting lists are so long and sometimes people don’t have a choice but to wait. Samaritans is accessible to everyone, no matter your background, status or financial position. It’s important people have that final resort. Our healthcare service can’t provide that and that’s where Samaritans comes in.”

This October, Steph took on the 2022 London Marathon in aid of Samaritans: "I decided to apply for a place with Samaritans for the marathon because I knew that Miles had used the service before and a few of our friendship group had also called out of concern for Miles in the past. "

We know that news and scenes of large-scale public mourning can cause different emotional responses, or remind some people of their own, personal losses. That’s why our volunteers had an official role in the 10 days of mourning following the death of HM The Queen.

At Samaritans we’re known for our lifesaving 24/7 emotional support service. However, we also work in prisons, schools, hospitals, on the rail network and out and about in local communities – working with people who are going through a difficult time.

During the mourning period, Samaritans' teams were visible in key locations across London to proactively approach visitors who appeared in distress, as well as listening to anyone who had a memory, or impression to share and who had sought out a conversation with one of our listening volunteers. In total, over the 10-day period, Samaritans volunteers provided emotional support to more that 1,200 people across the key mourning locations in London.

Named in the Pinc List 2022: Wales' most influential LGBT+ people, and part of the Stonewall Cymru Role Model Guide, they are on a mission to support the charity on its EDI journey. We spoke to them about their role and why EDI is so important.

Tell us a bit about your role at Samaritans?

“My role is Head of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Samaritans, and I’m responsible for supporting the charity on our EDI journey.

“This includes delivering and developing EDI initiatives, and following our commitment and foundation plan that we’re working against. This sets out the direction we need to go in over the next two years and my role is to help us get there. Whether that’s supporting teams in making sure they are including diverse perspectives in their projects, or helping to create an environment that is more inclusive where people feel like they are able to be themselves. Our aim is to create an equitable environment where people are able to get the support they need to do their work, or volunteer, and have access to the same opportunities regardless of their background or identities, and where difference is celebrated and valued.”

What does your role involve?

“I lead the EDI Team at Samaritans, which includes two (soon to be three) different people who have specific roles to play in supporting different teams across the organisation.

“EDI at Samaritans is a journey, and inclusion is not a short journey, it’s a marathon. My view is that if you do inclusion right there is no ending to it, as you are always striving to be the best you can be when it comes to valuing diversity and making people feel welcome. So long as there are people who maybe feel like they don’t belong, we can be doing something to support them. That might be improving the accessibility of our technology and our branches, to raising awareness and helping people feel comfortable with lived experience they had not considered, whether its neurodiversity, race, or sexual orientation, or even different lived experiences such as mental illness, different class backgrounds and more. Whatever different walks of life people come from we want them to feel welcome and at home within Samaritans, and also feel they are able to call Samaritans if they need emotional support.

“I would like Samaritans to become a charity that is confident about diversity– about including difference and recognising difference. I would like us to be an organisation which is curious about different lived experiences, and therefor one that is constantly striving to hear those different perspectives and include them in our work.”

What’s the best thing about your job?

“There are two things I would consider to the best things. One is talking to someone, who may have had experiences in the past where they have felt like they haven’t belonged, and let’s be honest – that’s most people!. When you get it right, and create an environment where they are valued, and included and are able to share the parts of themselves they previously didn’t feel able to, it’s amazing. Whether it’s staff members or our volunteers, they’re so passionate about the work we do, and it’s great to see them feel more included, have their voice heard, and know that we value what makes them, them.

“The second thing is seeing those light bulb moments in people – when they are maybe nervous about a topic or don’t quite see the relevance, but the pieces click together and they understand that maybe looking at things from a different perspective can help them to support someone, or help a fellow volunteer or colleague feel more at ease. Seeing them become an advocate for inclusion, and consciously make even small changes to be more inclusive in the language they use, or how they work is so rewarding.”

What are some of the challenges you face in your role?

“One challenge is helping people to understand difficult topics. I think when you’re working in EDI you have to be ready to be uncomfortable. Whether that’s discomfort at hearing an opinion that doesn’t match up with your own, or someone telling you that something you’ve done in the past hasn’t been all that fantastic and then dealing with that feeling. As human’s we don’t like sitting with discomfort, but to do EDI right we have to get people to a place where they feel they can do that.”

Any interesting facts about your job that people may not expect?

“I think to work in EDI you kind of have to know a little bit about almost everything, but also accept that you don’t know everything and be willing to learn. Day-to-day you can go from talking about data monitoring and GDPR, followed by training, and then something as different as social media.

“To do the job you need to be well versed in all these different topics, which I think showcases the breadth and depth of EDI and how it touches almost everything we do. It’s so interesting to me as I love learning and sharing that knowledge with others!”

Our EDI Team is always keen to hear stories around EDI and the journeys of different organisations. If you have a story to share email [email protected]