Samaritans

Our Expertise
• Founded in 1953 Samaritans is the only emotional support charity that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

• Our vision is for a society in which fewer people die by suicide, where people are able to explore their feelings and where people are able to acknowledge and respect the feelings of others.

• Samaritans believes that offering people the opportunity to be listened to in confidence, and accepted without prejudice, can alleviate despair and suicidal feelings.

• It is the aim of Samaritans to make emotional health a mainstream issue.

• In Ireland our service is provided by almost 1,800 trained volunteers in 20 Samaritans branches nationwide

Touching Lives
Sadly, the need for Samaritans' service remains high. Last year our specially trained volunteers responded to over 300,000 contacts, providing 290,000 hours of listening and touching countless lives.

As well as our network of branch support a vital part of our work is reaching out to those most at a high risk of suicide and depression. Samaritans runs outreach programs to students in schools, to men and women in our prisons and to young people at national events, music festivals and at weekend nights on the streets of Dublin’s Temple Bar.

The Need
Samaritans is proud of its work to date.
But, we still have a long way to go:

• Depression affects more people than cancer.
• By 2020 depression will be the 2nd most common killer in the world
• 70% more people die each year by taking their own life than in road accidents
• Ireland has the second highest rate of suicide among young males in Europe
• Between 1998 and 2005 over 3,000 people have taken their own lives in Ireland
• 300,000 people or 7.7% of the population suffer from depression

Samaritans in Ireland

Samaritans Reaching Out
As well as offering our national helpline, our e-mail service and face to face visits through our branch network, we have embarked on a number of projects in recent years to raise awareness of our services, especially to those who are most in need of support.

Festival Branch
Samaritans’ festival branch provides a discreet and confidential emotional support service to people attending some of the largest outdoor festivals and national events. Events attended in 2004 included the Oxygen Music Festival, the Galway Arts Festival and the Fleadh Ceoil. Festival branch is proving to be particularly effective at reaching younger people.

Feet on the Street
Specially trained Samaritans volunteers proactively take to the streets of Dublin’s Temple Bar at weekends, meeting young people on neutral territory and exploring with them feelings of isolation, despair or suicide.

Prisoner Support
Samaritans’ volunteers operate weekly visits to nine of Ireland’s largest prisons where they offer face-to-face emotional support to prisoners. As well as offering this service to over 2,200 prisoners, volunteers select, train and support prisoners as ‘listeners’ in Wheatfield Prison, Dublin who in turn offer direct support to their fellow inmates in line with the values of Samaritans.

Schools Programme
Samaritans volunteers give presentations in schools and colleges, educating young people on emotional health and how their well-being can be improved by expressing difficult emotions rather than keeping problems and issues bottled up.

Your Support is Making a Difference

We rely almost entirely on public support to provide our service and this service is professional and cost effective.

• Services are delivered entirely by volunteers
• Volunteers receive 6 months intensive training
• Ratio of support staff to volunteers is 1:253
• €0.80 out of every €1.00 is used to provide service
• Samaritans has a 97% public awareness

Stronger Together

By contributing to a charity that is working for people in their community you are helping to strengthen that community but of course it is our callers and potential callers who are ultimately benefiting from your support.

Samaritans Website >