Unsure whether to accept a Samaritans volunteer role after interview

[OpenDenimCrab]

Hi everyone, I had an interview and got offered to be a listening Samaritans volunteer. I’m not sure what to do as I’ve just finished my psychology degree and am unsure whether I want to stay in psychology or use it for something else. It says online that Samaritans could be really good experience for psychology and potentially help me get an assistant psychologist job or something similar and I’m really grateful I got offered it, however I’m really unsure whether to take it or not. They said it’s a 2 year commitment, which would mean I wouldn’t be able to potentially move, do a masters, go travelling etc for 2 years from now and I’m anxious that I miss out on those opportunities for something which I may end up not using if I then don’t stay in psychology. I know that you can also deal with a lot of abusive and sexual calls, as well as people actively suicidal or even committing on the phone and I do really want to help but I feel like that would really mentally affect me and I remember when I came out of the interview I felt a bit emotional and overwhelmed afterwards thinking about the whole thing. Practically as well I’m not sure if I could even do the night shifts as they said it can finish at 3am, and the first train is at 5am and there’s also no parking so I couldn’t drive there. Also, they said that because you often cannot just end the call, a shift that is supposed to end at 10pm could go on until 12am, but my last train home is 11pm, so I would then have to wait until the 5am train. They said there is a camping bed onsite but as a young female I’m not sure id feel comfortable sleeping there. I really don’t want to come across as too negative, as I am really considering doing it as I want to help people and also gain something meaningful for my CV, but I’m also unsure whether it’s right emotionally and the length of expected commitment time. Sorry if this is a bit long, if anyone has done volunteering with the Samaritans I’d really appreciate hearing their experience and what advice they would give about it. :)

If youre tempted, but the logistics dont work for you, look at alternatives. Since covid, lots of services operate remotely now too. Depending on your location (are you happy to share what county you're in?), lots of local Minds have similar telephone helplines, then there's the National charities like CALM, Papyrus etc. who will have different requirements in terms of commitment, or even something like Shout if you would prefer to support in a text capacity.

From my experience, it can be a great way of gaining experience of a variety of people, conditions and presentations. But you need to be resilient, with good self-care practices and take up the support that they offer you.

I trained to be a Sam and did it for a while - as with PPs the shift pattern wasn't really compatible with working full time. One thing that hasn't been clearly expressed on this thread that also needs to be considered is the stance on suicide - basically that it is not the role of a Samaritan to try and talk someone out of committing suicide or even to get help unless specifically requested, but just to be there. A lot of time in training is spent on this and quite a few potential volunteers dropped out at this point as they couldn't reconcile themselves with this philosophy. Alongside the other challenges you would need to be clear that you could cope with this. As other people have said there are other volunteer opportunities that offer excellent training and experience - I currently volunteer on the Cruse helpline and the training was very good.

If you want less of a time commitment look at pact helpline. Relatives of people who are in prison call for advice/ support

As someone who has called the Samaritans I’d say that this role is not for you .

Kindly OP, I think you may be a little too young for this if it feels overwhelming at interview stage. IME most volunteers tend to be older and with a bit more life experience (sorry, do not mean that to sound patronising!), which perhaps makes the task feel slightly less daunting.

I did it for a number of years. Active suicide-in-progress calls are vanishingly rare, and prank calls/sex calls/timewasters outweigh genuine callers by quite some margin, depending on the shift. There is also a large volume of calls from chronically mentally unwell and institutionalised people, because Samaritans is often given as an out-of-hours alternative to crisis teams and on-call MH services. Despite the difficulties, the times when you are able to connect with and help someone, it’s incredibly worthwhile and really feels like you’re able to make a difference.

Branches are organised and run differently, with some structured much more rigidly than others, so you may find you’re more comfortable trying another location - and lack of parking at this one and having to take public transport to night shifts would be a dealbreaker for many people, so that alone is enough reason to let this one go.

If you’re specifically looking for experience to augment your qualification, have you thought about volunteering as a student listener? Lots of unis have helplines as part of their pastoral care programmes, and you’d be handling callers closer to your own age who are dealing with problems that would potentially fall more within the scope of your life experience so far.

I work for the Samaritans and am involved in recruitment and training. It isn't a 2 year commitment - you can leave whenever you want, although obviously the organisation wants to hold onto its volunteers after investing in a thorough and time-consuming training process. .

However, I think you need to do it for the right reasons. It's a service providing 24 hour support to people in despair and emotional crisis, not a CV builder. Of course you'll gain some valuable psychological insight, but I think your motivation needs to go quite a way beyond that.

• Yes we have abusive and inappropriately sexual calls - frustrating, but we're trained to deal with them and end them.
• Yes we work night shifts - that's part of the commitment, as it's when many people need the service most. I guess it's up to you to work out whether or not you could sort the travel for that.
• Yes we're sometimes on the phone to actively suicidal people, and this might affect you emotionally. You might find you can deal with it better than you expect though, particularly as the internal support system is good at Samaritans.
• A shift sometimes does overrun - it depends on the nature of your call and whether you want to pass it over - but I've not known one to overrun by 2 hours; that sounds a bit dramatic to me!

We recruit people of all adult ages and life stages, so you're not too young. I wouldn't suggest doing it if you plan to leave quickly to move and do a masters, although you could combine both of these things with working for Sams. If you go ahead it might surprise you. It's brought a lot to my life. Hope you make the right decision for yourself.

Helpline work whether that be Sams, Childline etc gives you a range of excellent skills that would transfer into any helping profession. The ability to quickly connect with someone, to listen to their concerns, to hold space for them, to assess risk based on very limited information, I’d recommend it to anyone thinking about counselling, social work, psychology where they will work with vulnerable people in distress. Those kind of jobs make huge demands on you emotionally, as does helpline work.

If the logistics of Sam’s don’t work for you there are other options but any helpline work will involve people making sex calls, people testing out the service and making prank calls. You need to be robust enough to deal with whatever comes through, with support, but it gives an excellent grounding for working with vulnerable people who often don’t present in socially conventional ways.

Agreed.
You sound too young for this role both in age and maturity.
Which is fine and not your problem at all.
The organisation should be looking for life experience in their volunteers.

It is a really worthwhile thing to do but it sounds as though it is not for you at this moment in your life.

As someone who has used the Samaritans on a number of occasions, I agree with pp that this is not a role to take if your primary motivation is to advance your career.

My experience is that the value of the Samaritans is that they make you feel that someone cares about you and what you are going through. You have a conflict as that is not your primary motivation.

I also don’t think you have the life experience for this role.

As a PSA for anyone considering volunteering, branches set their own policies for the minimum number of shifts/night shifts. Ask your local branch about theirs.

In your case, OP, I would say that if you are having doubts, just leave it and come back to it when you are ready. No-one will judge you, and your training place will be filled.

Interestingly, having worked on a variety of helplines I have found that Cruse attracts the least number of prank or sex calls. You still get a fair number of mental health issues, but the vast majority of callers are calling because they need help with a bereavement, which makes it a very rewarding experience.

Agree with all this!

This is a volunteering role and whilst it’s important that they get their moneys worth from you , you absolutely do not have to put your life on hold for 2 years .You’re not working under a contractual arrangement so can leave at any time .
They also have a duty of care towards you and offering a camp bed to sleep on if you miss your last bus home isn’t really cutting it
i have experience of managing a similar organisation and I’m really surprised at what you’re telling me . Perhaps try another branch/ charity that supports its volunteers better ?

All these issues are covered in the Sam’s training. Do you mean you’ve been accepted onto the training course, rather than a volunteer? Doing the course might clarify a few things for you.
To the pp who said in the 80s they never experienced any sex calls, SAMs was established in the 50s and certainly by the 60s had introduced the ‘Brenda’ option ( since, thankfully discontinued) which allowed men a safe place to masturbate, with a listening ear. So if by the 80s, your branch had no longer any of these calls, they must have been a very impressive outlier.
When I volunteered, night shifts were just that, the whole night. There was no suggestion of volunteers being sent home in the early hours of the morning. I do realise different branches have different working practices however.

i don’t think this is right for you
There are many other ways to get experience that would benefit you if you choose a career in psychology. Could you look into family lives? Very similar vibe but I think they do remote and no fixed rigid commitment.
Then you could do it for maybe 6 months then try something else. Variety is best I think for showing a wealth of experience with all sorts of people across all sorts of environments. Would give you much more to speak about in interviews than 2 years in just one volunteer placement.

Career wise, have you looked into perhaps becoming a PWP? You could get a funded trainee post in maybe a couple of years once you have built up some experience (volunteer work, paid work and actually just life experience!)

Also 100% do some travelling etc while you’re free! Once you start a competitive career you will not be keen to step out. So I would do a mix of paid work, saving, volunteer work, enjoy being young, then go travelling, back for more of the above to settle back into home life then try advance a career from there

Do you think that taking the training and moving on so soon is fair to the charities, though? Trading costs a lot. And tbh, after 6 months’ experience you’re still very much a newbie.

If they require people to stay long term then they need to pay them tbh. Volunteering is by its very nature less likely to get long term placements.

Absolutely fair yes. I think giving 6 months of your time for free to an organisation is a decent effort and a lot more volunteering than many people do. Maybe not if the training was 4 months or something but I think OP has shown she isn’t looking for something high commitment like that, hence my advice: find some shorter term gigs you can commit to for around 6 months

From my own experience, I disagree. My last volunteer role was for 6 years and I was still considered a relative newbie.

When I was a Samaritan, the actual training took place over a 10 week period so someone knowing that they plan to leave within 6 months is taking the mickey.

But Sams training does last that long. It’s a mixture of in-person group sessions, online study at home, then hours and hours of supervision before you’re allowed to take calls by yourself. It’s not fair to Sams if someone comes in, gets all the training, then leaves after only a few months.

Having experience in this area, I'd support the very good advice above. In addition, I'd suggest leaving any thoughts about a career in anything like clinical psychology for a few years too. If hearing about mental distress or any of the topics that absolutely can emerge during therapy are triggering or worrying for you, you would be better thinking of a different career, or potentially something more research focused. Best of luck either way.

Working in clinical psychology in any area is not just about qualifications. It is about life experience and maturity too.
So going out and getting some of that first is good advice.

.. and my advice was not to volunteer for Samaritans