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. :)

I’d imagine the training offered by other orgs is similar.

I agree that doing the training and disappearing after a few months isn't good form. I would say that a year of service post-registration is a fair minimum given the considerable investment and support they will have in their year of training and during their probation period.

The recruitment, training, mentoring and ongoing support is all delivered by volunteers, for the purpose of delivering a good service to callers. Each branch needs to have a certain number of active and fully trained volunteers to maintain their opening hours, including the nights which are, as others have said, a vital time to be open, plus a whole team of experienced volunteers who take on these additional roles, running two or three recruitment cycles every year, tio ensure that enough new volunteers come in to offset attrition. It's a lot.

I did Samaritans for a while but they don't make it easy for people who have any other commitments. I ended up leaving as they made no concessions for my pregnancy fatigue.
It was noticeable that all of the volunteers were either elderly retirees or young students. Probably due to the inflexibility of what they expect from volunteers.
I do think it was a worthwhile experience and I would have liked to continue if I had been able to, but no way could I have done those late night shifts, and tbh, I don't think it should be such a strict requirement for people to mix up day shifts and night shifts in the rota, when we know how bad this is for people's health in general

@Branleuse I do think the culture varies between branches. Some volunteers in leadership roles can be more aware of how to be inclusive than others.

But as a trainee psychologist those situations will be part of the job.
If you are not currently strong enough to cope with these situations I'd suggest you aren't ready for that career.

That's true but hopefully not such a quick fire bombardment of constant suicidal calls interspliced with perverts. Just solidly for four hours a night. It sounds pretty draining.

You're right about the fact they might not be ready if they can't handle that though.

This is not what I recognise from my branch. The SLT is very flexible in allowing people to do the shifts they want to.

Calls are not like that. There are very few genuine suicidal calls, and lots of ‘normal’ calls.

Ok fair enough. It's probably alright then!

I think this is a really important point to take note of, OP. Esp given your background in psychology. I did it at the same time as I qualified as a mental health nurse, but also found it in conflict to my registration as a nurse at times. Several of the people I trained with dropped out due to their stance on how you would respond as a SAM to a suicide call. Also, second all the posters who have flagged the sex calls - there was a lot

I agree when this.
When I signed up, I had visions of myself talking people out of suicide and saving lives all over the place, I didn't expect to be sitting there listening and not talking anyone out of anything.
However, I found it restful and useful and a space for people who could talk about their feelings without feeling like someone was going to stop them or "help" them.

We had to do one night shift a month (more was preferred but workers were fine to just do one), which I found fine (I liked a Thursday and rocked straight into work!). I was younger then.

We were allowed to hand over calls at the end of our shift, so I never stayed more than a few extra mins. The new volunteers would be in and raring to go, so no point is keeping anyone on, unless they especially wanted to stay.

I was lucky to be in a safe place where I didn't mind walking home, or to my car parked a few streets away. We had a couple of bookable car parking spaces for anyone who really needed to be close to their car.

Occasionally someone transferred into our branch from somewhere else, so training not wasted, they just needed an extra batch of mentoring.

I worked in the recruitment side of it for a while and loved that.

I'd say it's not for the OP, it's a bit cynical to use as a career move, it never even occurred to me to mention it on my CV.