Volunteering as a samaritan

[Fourta]

I’m considering volunteering as a Samaritan, has anyone done or doing this?
Im be interested to know what the training is like, etc..?
Thanks

I trained to be a Samaritan a few years ago. The training was pretty intense if I remember correctly and quite a few people dropped out. You have to be comfortable with the Samaritan's stance on suicide - which is not to intervene or try and get help for a suicidal caller in any way, but simply to be there to listen, which some people just couldn't accept. After qualifying I did shifts for a while but it wasn't compatible with working full time as you were/ are expected to do overnight shifts at least once a month. All in all though it gave me the confidence to do helpline volunteering for other charities which I still do today.

I've put my name forward three different times with my local branch, twice by using the online form (got a one email reply saying they'd contact me when the next training course started in a couple of months, after which nothing), once by approaching a stand at a local festival after which I got a phonecall apology for having somehow failed to contact me before the last two sets of training started and that they'd definitely do it next time. Nothing since.

So they've lost, presumably through their own disorganisation, someone who would have been a good volunteer, flexible, committed, and living close to the base.

A friend volunteered for them for years, but gave up a couple of years back because the number of sex calls had increased to the point where she had to steel herself before a shift and felt like she was being taken for an idiot rather than actually helping people in crisis.

And, which I gather from my friend who was a Samaritan for years, that you're quite limited in what you can say to callers. You can point the person to other sources of help or information, but it's not an advice line, it's very much a listening service. I think some people found that difficult to take and dropped out of training, from what she said.

Yes agree @SpillingWater - it's very different from other helplines in that respect. Also agree about the sex calls. There is an urban myth that the Samaritans can't end a call so the service is particularly plagued with heavy breathers. However you can end a call if it's inappropriate and I certainly did so a few times.

Our work recently had a presentation from them- what they do, how to volunteer, the training etc etc. I found it very interesting and already work in a healthcare role, so feel I have good skills to start with.

I wrongly assumed it would be working from home, but you need to go to a base centre. Mine would be over a 1hr round trip away and especially when doing nights, I wasn't keen on going to that particular town.

Unfortunately I don't think the Samaritans is the most helpful of services , in that it literally is just a very generic listening service with quite a lot of robotic answers which are not tailored to the caller. The fact they can't give advice or relate to the experience if applicable, is just rather... Robotic. Not their fault of course, it's just a product of the over sanitised/protocol driven society we live in.

I volunteered for a few years. The training was really good and I enjoyed the overall environment and it was really rewarding when at the end of a shift you felt you had managed to support someone who was in a desperate place. However, I gave it up in the end as I got fed up with the sex calls, the bored/winding you up/sexual prisoner callers and the really depressing amount of calls from people in absolute crisis who were completely unable to get any of the help they desperately needed from the NHS.

I trained last year and am currently a volunteer. Feel free to ask me anything and I will try to answer as best I can!

I volunteered for 10 years and only stopped as i could no longer commit to night duty. The training is intense but you are supported as you go through it. I delivered training later in my time as a volunteer. You have to be prepared for anything and yes you are a listener but you can talk to callers, it is not all one way. Yes there are sex callers but you are taught how to deal with them and I never found them particularly difficult or stressful. For me the training has stayed with me and it was the most rewarding volunteer role I have ever had. If you can commit to the training then you will be fine. Sams volunteers are amazing people and I found friends for life through them.

There will probably be a waiting just for selection/interview, then you'll wait to start a training course. Branches vary, but it's generally 6 weeks of evening sessions (say, 7pm to 10pm, once a week), and possibly some skills practice during the week. There is also online material - "homework" - which takes between one and two hours per week at home.
You will do your first shifts with a mentor, and once you are up and running as a Sam, there will be further online modules and group training sessions. It takes about 6 months to be signed off as a "full" Samaritan.
The key thing is to be sure that you can meet the required commitment, including antisocial hours and late night/early hours shifts.
Your branch will repay your travel expenses, so lack of funds/transport shouldn't be an issue.
Do some research on the website first, and then contact your local branch for further info.

I think I saw something in the media recently about the Samaritans planning to change that, and have people work from home?

Which may limit who can volunteer, as I imagine a lot of people simply would struggle to be responding to difficult calls in their home where there might be young children wandering around, or it being difficult not to be overheard by family members.

@mumonthehill I don't think it was so much that my friend was personally upset by the sex calls, more that she thought their frequency had gone up to the extent that she sometimes felt she was listening more to pranks and sex calls than to people in crisis.

@SpillingWater sex callers have been part of the callers that have rung since Chad Varah set up Samaritans, he had interesting views on them!! I think perhaps they changed in what was said over the years but they were an issue from the beginning.

Yes, I've read about the 'Brendas', and I'm afraid I think Chad Varah thought there was some virtue in some women Samaritans allowing themselves to be used as wank fodder.

My friend's perception was that the frequency of sex and non-sexual prank calls had risen to the point where she felt it was considerably lessening how much use she felt she was on the average shift.

I was a Samaritan for about 18 months, eventually I got really fed up with the amount of misuse of service calls. A huge amount were from prisoners who have free access to a phone, there were loads who were aggressive, abusive and the worst were the more manipulative ones who just wanted to try to wank off without you realising. They were usually really obvious and often repeated their wanky words to get off! It got so annoying and when you think how much of your volunteer time you are giving, eventually it becomes too much. Despite this, I was still comfortable carrying on until I listened to a volunteer taking a call from a caller who pretended to take their own life. It appeared to be a clear hoax to me, but there is no way to know. The volunteer was a lovely lady who absolutely believed the caller. When the call concluded she was devastated and there was minimal support for her. I decided I was becoming really biased towards some callers which I couldn’t risk. I am glad I did it but I would have to think carefully about ever volunteering again. 😢

I done the training but couldn’t continue on the basis that if someone called to say they’re suicidal, we couldn’t try to help in any other way than to listen. No input with help from the Samaritan was allowed, I was uncomfortable with that but I have a lot of respect for people that can do it.

I was a Samaritan for 20 years from the age of 21, and left because when I had children and could no longer manage the commitment (especially the overnight shifts - we did seven of these a year). The initial and ongoing training were great, and I met some lovely people, but in the last few years I became very jaded because of the many calls, emails and texts which were a misuse of the service. It wasn't always the calls themselves which bothered me, but the tolerance/acceptance of them by the service (saying that though, perhaps nothing really could be done about them). Very few really affected me, but I became increasingly annoyed by being called at 4am by callers masturbating or making obscene threats, and I knew that even if I hadn't had a young family, I was coming round to the opinion that there were more valuable volunteering opportunities for me to explore. I guess I also preferred being with (genuine) callers on the phone rather than through texts or emails, but we were being asked to devote a lot of time to the latter. Texts in particular seemed to me to really encourage callers to become unhealthily dependent on contact from the service, which also made me question the worth of what I was doing. All that said, the prison volunteering I did, and the calls I took from truly desperate people who had no-one else to go down into the depths with them, will stay with me, and it was a privilege to be there at those times.

Hello. I've done it. They did a presentation asking for volunteers. The training is fantastic and surprisingly more comprehensive than I thought it would be. I highly recommend it. Such a fantastic organisation. Them and the Listening Space.

If you are interested in volunteering for a helpline service @Fourta I can recommend Cruse. They also offer comprehensive training and bereavement support is very rewarding. You really are there for people at a very difficult time in their lives. There is less ( but not zero) abuse of the service and the support for volunteers is very good.

I did it around 10 years ago. Had an induction and read through policies. Shadowed someone for a couple of sessions then I was observed by a worker. Then I was on my own, I did have a team member overseeing me though.

it was mostly phone calls back then. The majority would hang up with out speaking. About a fifth were sex pests. Then you get the lonely/bored/mildly depressed.and then the severally depressed. I worked there three years and I had 4 suicidal callers who were planing eminently to end their life.

I cannot imagine how you cope with not knowing if that person lived or died or what happened to them. It wouod haunt me.

One stayed on the line while she was doing it. You can offer to get help but otherwise you are powerless. Eventually the line cut off and I have no idea if she lived or died .

I can’t imagine how traumatising that would be. Why on earth is that allowed?

That’s what Samaritans is, it’s firstly a suicide line. So if people want to end their life they have someone they can talk to and even be there with them (via text, phone or email) so they don’t have to go it alone. A Samaritan is there to help them explore their options/ consider the consequences but not to talk them out of it. If they asked for help we would ask for an address and ring emergency services but otherwise we had no idea where they were.

Whilst from time to time I do think about those people I spoke to (especially the girl who kept me on the phone during) I don’t really know if they did it or not. Some people would pretend (we knew because they kept calling after pretending to die) The majority of the role was being hung up on and sex pests. The suicides were a small (but most memorable) part.

it’s a strange service to volunteer for because you don’t get much back from doing it , as in you don’t really see how you have helped people so it can be hard to keep your spirits up. Tbh I left when it started to impact on my mental health.