Mermaids closes chatlines

[Sparklybutold]

So... Mermaids closes chat lines owing to abusive phone calls. I can't help but think this is awful behaviour from those ringing.

Pity they didn’t close their entire operation. Let’s hope the investigation by the charity commission will achieve that.

@Babdoc it will certainly be interesting to see what comes of it

Alleged abuse

Playing the victim as usual.

Were there abusive phone calls though? It was more likely to prevent journalists from phoning asking for information.

Could be angry parents!

Or companies asking for refunds
on the training courses.

"Alleged abuse"

I'm sure most orgs record telephone calls, for training purposes as well as evidence of abuse/threats. I guess any org that supports gay or trans people would need to record phone calls made to them because of abuse from haters.

Don’t they have to advise a caller that the call may be recorded?

Crikey, let's hope so. And let's hope they have to hand over those tapes to the charity commission.

@MargaritaPie - excellent to hear that any “abuse” has been recorded and can be provided to the authorities to investigate fully. No one should be abused, it is disgraceful behaviour from anyone and should not be tolerated.

Of course, this can also prove if “abuse” was received, or if difficult questions were asked (perhaps by journalists or parents) and that has been falsely equated with “abuse”….

Yes it's fantastic that it's all recorded.

So any abuse or advice will be recorded, I assume.😇

Good. Sincerely hope that an organisation that has years of history in favour of drugging and mutilating children has truly been closed down

I love the suggestion that Mermaids aren’t a bunch of amateurs and are organised enough to record phone calls, and protect that data properly with safeguarding strategies to make sure details aren’t shared.

If nothing else works, a total pigheaded unwillingness to look facts in the face will see you through, eh Marg?

Wow Marjory just wow!
Oh all the things to be concerned about regarding Mermaids that has came out these past couple of weeks and you start a thread about the chatline being closed down cause of abuse? Don't get me wrong , IF workers /volunteers have been abused, then that is uncalled for. I've received abuse in my job and it's horrible and no one should have to put up with that at work.
However, Mermaids should have shut the chat line down as soon as the massive safeguarding blunder of appointing Jacob Breslow . The whole organisation should have been closed for a safeguarding audit as a matter of urgent priority.
They seemed to have such an arrogant attitude towards any criticism of their failures and oh boy, their failings ( if we overlook my belief that they should not exist as an organisation for children period !).
They think they are above any legislation and are not accountable to the very basic of child protection. Sadly, my feeling is that ,they are probably correct. For years ,they have fed children and young people's heads with utter nonsense and sent them along the path of irreversible medication and mutilating surgery.
I'm glad that Tory MP called for a police investigation . I am shocked that it has taken so long. God knows I, a lowly ex social worker of 20 years has been screaming for their hard drives to be checked for years. So many women on here and elsewhere have called them out and no one listen . I hate this country and how we have forgotten Jimi Saville etc
But here we are again and the likes of The Guardian doesn't even report it.
So yeah sorry about the abuse to the call handlers if that occurred but I hope the whole sorry organisation is shut for good . And Gendered Intelligence next.

Were there abusive phone calls though? It was more likely to prevent journalists from phoning asking for information

There was a rumour that their volunteers abandoned them.

I’m sure if this is the case most of them simply left because they were horrified by the revelations. But I do wonder if some of said volunteers melted away at the prospect of more stringent background checks.

Yesterday's revelations were that they employ with a 'trans friendly DBS' - whatever that means [an assumption that trans people's old lives mustn't be looked at?], and that they encouraged kids onto Discord which is for over 17s only.

So I'm very pleased the chat is down. May it forever stay down.

Yup.

I thought most high profile help lines got lots of abuse, prank and dubious phone calls?

FFS. Talk about hiding in plain sight! Why on earth would you need a different DBS from anyone else?!

A Mumsnetter who used to work for the Samaritans said they got loads of wanking men who would redial and hang up repeatedly until they got a female operator 🤮

Given zealots of this ideology often report women for fighting for women’s rights as hate crime then I am not sure really that I believe them.

Same here.

Come on, we all know that the 'reduced hours and closed on Wednesdays' (are Wednesdays a particularly bad days for abusive phone calls or something?) are because they are frantically checking their volunteers to ensure there are no more skeletons in the closet and because some of those volunteers are leaving (perhaps because they have skeletons in their closet!)

How convenient that they can say its because of abusive phone calls and so take the heat off themselves whilst also garnering sympathy. If they are getting a lot of abuse then hopefully the calls will be recorded and can be handed to the correct authorities.

I cannot believe their new job advert and the 'trans friendly DBS' stuff. It does feel a little bit like they are trolling now!

I believe any charity helpline gets regular dubious calls from men. A young female acquaintance of mine worked for an animal charity and they were often the victims of this.

It’s well known that Samaritans, Childline, Women’s Aid etc get prank/weird/abusive phone calls. Good organisations help the volunteers manage them as it’s a very common reason for volunteers giving up