Samaritans- anyone volunteer?

[Boxshibe]

I have to do volunteering for work could be anything so I thought maybe samaritans. I've used there services in the past and would like to give back. Just had a call and can start my training at the weekend. Has anyone done this? How was it?

I did it for a few years. Lots of prank callers, hang ups and people talking about sexually fantasies often involving children. Had one suicide attempt over phone. It's an interesting role and more importantly a fantastic service for those who actually need it but unfortunately you spend more time dealing with time wasters and sexual deviants.

We always explore feelings with a caller and we do signpost where appropriate, but if someone is just calling to have a chat then that’s not what we are there for. Obviously we don’t just put the phone down on people, we always try to be kind, but we can’t spend half an hour having a nice chat about the weather and bake off while somebody might be waiting to get through who is desperately trying to distract themselves from self harming, or swallowing another handful of pills. It sounds harsh, and sometimes it feels harsh, but it’s drilled into us again and again in training that Samaritans isn’t a chat line.

I was accused of using the Samaritans as a "chat line"... was told it was for suicidal people only!
I do call them on occasion, but is seems to be 50/50 as to whether they help or not. I know they are just there to listen, but between being told I am wasting their time, and being taught about ways to kill myself I do wonder why some people volunteer for them at all.

Nowdays, I use the Shout service

I can’t speak for your branch but all the training was done outside working hours at mine. Each branch will have its own minimum weekly requirement for shifts, but at mine it’s one shift per week with an antisocial shift every 4 to 6 weeks, we have to do 10 per year I think.

Samaritans is a 24-7 service, so there will be plenty of shifts outside working hours. We have volunteers who can only do evenings or weekends, in fact we have a couple of volunteers who only do earlies or lates. It’s something you’ll have to discuss with your specific branch, but there are loads of volunteers who have full-time jobs.

The requirement at my branch is one 3 hr shift a week, and a night shift once every 4-6 weeks. The non-night shifts can be day or evening, and once you are taking calls by yourself (after six months or so) I believe you can choose within reason, but the night shifts are allocated by whoever is in charge of the rota.

The training alone is partly online and partly on Zoom, several hours a week spread over five or six weeks.

I've been volunteering for a few years now and trained before that. It is demanding but feels really worthwhile.

In our branch you are asked to do a three hour shift every week and one three hour night duty (between midnight and 6am) each month. No-one enforces this but most people do it.

The training took 9 months (delays due to covid) but is usually about 6. You are very well-supported as you learn to take calls and don't 'go solo' for quite a while.

You can't take the calls in your own home. They are always done at a Samaritans base. (This is good because you can leave the calls behind after your shift and you always have sound support on hand if the call is a difficult one.)

As you might expect, difficult calls can be suicide ones or people unburdening themselves of unbearable suffering . These can be really tough -harrowing even- especially while you are taking them ...but can also be oddly rewarding. Standing with people who feel suicidal or in terrible pain is what we are for. In some calls I have clearly heard how much talking has helped.

Many callers have mental health problems and seem unsupported in the outside world.
Some are struggling with chronic physical pain and need talk for distraction between painkiller doses.
Some have drink/drug problems. Some are gamblers. Some have impossible money or housing troubles.

Many are suffering bereavement or terrible loneliness and need to talk through their pain with someone who can bear it. (Friends and relations often can't.)

We have lots of support afterwards so that we don't end up carrying this sort of thing too long. (I have found so far that even the most upsetting can disappear -like dreams- within a few hours or days.) We have a Samaritans' Samaritan for talking to if we need that but always get to download our shift to someone and get a follow-up next day if it was expecially challenging/distressing.

In response to comments above - yes the other difficult calls are the sex ones. (I've found other Samaritans very supportive to anyone who has suffered such calls. No-one here expects you to be 'tough' about them.) In my experience so far they have always been from male callers. You want to recognise these calls for what they are ... but not misread a genuine caller.

We are free to end sex-calls as fast as we like (because they are revolting/upsetting) or get them onto more serious subjects or to quietly ruin the experience for a the sex-caller. (Who would have thought that being really really boring and unsexy could be a useful talent :) .)

My mum did it in the 90s and from what everyone has said it's about the same - especially the sex calls. She did evenings and an overnight about once a month at the centre.

She really enjoyed the training and did it for a few years until caring commitments got too much. We went to some really good fundraising quiz evenings and other social events with them and it's something I'm keen to do when I retire. I always donate to them if they're out fundraising locally.

I used to be a volunteer and found it very rewarding. Sex calls - yes, they happened, but outweighed by genuine calls, sone quite harrowing. I still miss it but when I learnt that Samaritans had formed a link up with PaddyPower I was so shocked I felt that ethically I couldn’t continue - bearing in mind that A) PP is a very large gambling organisation and B) one of the main causes of suicide is gambling problems.

I was a Samaritan many years ago but had to give it up due to the timing of night shifts clashing with my job - I finished work too late to be able to do the early night shift and the late night shift finished too late for me to start work in time. And at least one night shift each month was mandatory so that caused me a real problem unfortunately. I couldn't afford to keep getting into trouble at work for arriving late/leaving early no matter how worthy my reason was (my boss was a complete arsehole).

I understand from a friend (who I met on our Samaritans training together) that in recent years things may have been relaxed a little as they were losing volunteers due to the rigid shift timings but who knows?

Like others have said, I found the sex fantasy calls unpleasant. When I did my training, we were told that 1 in 4 calls was a sex call. I still remember one where a man went into a lot of detail about how he was raped in the gents in a pub. It was a horrific story and I only realised right at the end that it was a fantasy call when there was a grunt. Of course the fact that some men feel the need to do this means that perhaps they do need mental health support but still.

We used to have 'crib sheets' on the wall of identifying phrases to look out for so we could identify sex callers that had been banned. And we were trained how to end those calls if we did identify them as a regular banned user (we'd call over a supervisor to listen in first if we thought we spotted someone). We also got face to face visitors where I volunteered. I don't know if that branch still does face to face. I assume not, especially now with Covid. Face to face was quite challenging and you had to be more experienced before you started doing that.

Some of the more 'genuine' calls could be very distressing. It was 20 years ago but I can still remember everything about those callers and their stories. Their pain stays with you. I often wondered what happened to the callers. A different friend from my training course had to stay on a call while the caller took an overdose and passed away so they weren't alone while they died. It was very hard on her and in the end she decided to leave as she struggled to get past that experience.

Being a Samaritan isn't for the faint-hearted and despite the incredible training, I do think it takes its toll on you. I have huge respect for the volunteers though. We need more good people like them in the world.

Training is usually weekday evenings - eg 7pm to 10pm. Occasionally, training could be daytime on a Saturday or Sunday.

Branches switched to Zoom training in the pandemic, but most have gone back to in-person training in the local centres.

Don't forget that training is delivered by volunteers, and many of them have day jobs elsewhere, so training has to be run outside regular 9 to 5 hours. Similarly with recruitment, management etc. Most branches do not have any paid staff.

ive been a Samaritan for 8 years. The sex calls are annoying for sure but you are trained to handle them and end them too. In my experience there is a lot of support if you’re struggling to cope and there is a mandatory “debrief” after every shift which should help ensure you’re not taking anything negative away with you. As far as I know all branches do this.

I guess it’s not for everyone though. You sometimes need to be a little thick skinned and remember it’s not personal nor about you. The rewards far outweigh the negatives…