Answering the call
Samaritans Chief Executive RUTH SUTHERLAND and Strategic Programme Manager NEIL PETERS reflect on the life-saving partnership that the charity has enjoyed with the rail industry for the past decade, and which is still going strong
In January 2010, Samaritans entered the new decade by announcing the start of a partnership with Network Rail to reduce the number of suicides on the railway. While the overall rate of suicide had been steadily declining in the UK across the preceding ten years, the new partnership was formed in recognition of the fact that railway suicides had remained fairly static.
The partnership was to be delivered in various ways. Samaritans was to deliver bespoke training to rail staff in dealing with suicides and their aftermath, while an integrated programme of activity was launched to place Samaritans posters and helpline details at key stations.
Meanwhile, a national communications campaign was launched to increase awareness of Samaritans support services to high-risk groups, and more work was to be done with mainstream media to ensure responsible reporting and to further reduce the likelihood of suicides.
Samaritans Strategic Programme Manager Neil Peters recalls: “I joined the organisation in 2011 when the partnership was very much in its infancy. But it was new and groundbreaking - nothing on this scale had ever been done before between the charity and a corporate partner.
“It was very much a learning curve for all of us because suicides had not been decreasing in rail, and the industry very much wanted to arrest that trend. The training was a real gamechanger because it was all about empowering staff so that they could do something about it and own the problem.
“Lots of rail staff already had the necessary skills in terms of providing customer service and that sort of thing, but we needed to give them the confidence to use those skills and the realisation that talking to a vulnerable person needn’t be scary.”
The partnership quickly evolved into a cross-industry programme, and from 2010-15
It was a big leap of faith, but now we are contacted by people from all over the world to learn more about it. Ruth Sutherland, CEO, Samaritans
more than 10,000 railway staff at NR, train operating companies, British Transport Police and other organisations received specialist training.
By the time the partnership was renewed in 2015, action by rail staff to identify vulnerable people and then help them was thought to have potentially saved more than 1,000 lives.
Five years later and the number of trained staff has now surpassed 20,000, with more than 1,800 interventions reported in 2019-20 alone and an even greater number that have simply gone unreported.
Samaritans CEO Ruth Sutherland says: “We are so proud of the partnership. It was unique when we started, but in the last ten years it has delivered above and beyond what we expected - not least the 20,000 people we’ve trained.
“It was a big leap of faith, but now we are contacted by people from all over the world to learn more about it. There were times on the journey when we asked ourselves ‘why aren’t the suicide rates going down?’ But there are no quick wins and you can’t bring about that sort of change overnight.”
It’s not only rail staff who have been targeted by the partnership. In November 2017, the Small Talk Saves Lives campaign was launched to encourage passengers and other members of the public to also support those who may be in emotional crisis.
The campaign aimed to give commuters the confidence to trust their own instincts and intervene if they spot someone vulnerable who may be at risk of suicide, and to talk to them to interrupt their suicidal thoughts.
This was followed up in 2019 by the launch of the Real People, Real Stories campaign, which was the fourth awareness campaign launched by Samaritans on behalf of the rail industry since 2010.
It is primarily aimed at men aged 20-59 (statistically speaking, the demographic most at risk of suicide), and features men who have overcome difficult times sharing their stories and encouraging others to seek help by contacting Samaritans.
Sutherland says: “Small Talk Saves Lives has been a runaway success as we were releasing an asset that we didn’t otherwise know was there. Passengers are well positioned to help because suicide prevention should be everyone’s business.”
Peters adds: “Small Talk Saves Lives represented a real shift in emphasis in how we approached suicide prevention. We were no longer exclusively appealing directly to vulnerable people to seek help, but empowering the general public to get involved.”
Following the success of the partnership, it was renewed once more in April following an extensive tendering process.
Training for railway employees will continue as before, as will work within the wider community to destigmatise suicide and promote help-seeking behaviour.
Mitigation measures will also continue to be deployed, such as fencing at high-risk areas as the partnership looks to support the Government’s target of a 10% reduction in suicides by 2021.
However, all parties recognise that the partnership will need to evolve much further in order to meet several new and significant challenges.
These include a 12% rise in the number of suicides or suspected suicides that took place on the network in 2019-20, compared with the previous year. This increase is unwelcome, although it should be remembered that the total number of 283 could have been far higher if not for the 1,800+ interventions that were made in the same year.
A second challenge is posed by the structural changes being made in the industry, with the devolution of Network Rail, in particular, providing an opportunity for local Samaritans branches to work more closely with NR’s devolved route and regional businesses.
Peters explains: “We’ve just renewed the partnership, but after ten years it was time to evolve it. We didn’t need to start from scratch, but to change the way we work, and in light of greater devolution we will be recruiting regional officers to work with NR’s regions. They will be embedded in their offices so that we can work more closely with BTP and Samaritans branches in those areas.
“We’re also going to recruit media managers who will have more time to share key messaging and to speak to comms teams. And we’ve created a new Head of Rail role to take a more strategic look at relationship building.”
But perhaps the most serious threat to have emerged is the Coronavirus pandemic.
Although its long-term effects on mental health and suicidal behaviour are yet to be fully understood, it is clear that the threat of disease and the efforts made to contain its spread have proven stressful to many people.
Feelings of isolation, depression and anxiety are all known triggers for psychological distress and potential self-harm.
Sutherland explains: “COVID-19 brings a whole new territory, but we know that the various stresses and strains it is causing will heighten demand for the support we provide. We provide 7,000 contacts with people each day and one in three of them are now COVID19-related, so we have noticed a big increase.
“We’ve also noticed a 171% increase in traffic to our website, so we’ve responded by bringing forward things we had in the pipeline, such as our self-help app and the Our Frontline campaign for key workers.”
The Our Frontline campaign was launched on May 11 by a group of leading mental health charities including Samaritans, MIND, Hospice UK and the Royal Foundation.
Supported by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Our Frontline is aimed at supporting NHS workers, care workers, emergency services, rail staff and other key workers whose mental health has been put under pressure by going to work while many of us have stayed in the relative safety of our homes.
Frontline staff and key workers are able
to call or text a trained volunteer and access specially developed online resources, toolkits and advice to support their mental health and wellbeing.
“The Our Frontline campaign is responsive to the current situation and provides additional support to our key workers,” adds Sutherland.
“We were able to use advertising space on the rail estate due to our pre-existing relationship and [owing to the travel restrictions placed on all but essential travel] knew that we would be reaching our target audience.”
Meanwhile, the pandemic has also created some more practical and operational difficulties for Samaritans, which heavily relies on donations and fundraising events to finance its activities.
Typical fundraising events such as sponsored bike rides, marathons and charity bake sales have all but stopped as a result of lockdown measures, while face-to-face training of volunteers has also had to cease for the same reason.
But once again Samaritans has been flexible and is now delivering much of its training online. The charity is therefore appealing to members of the public who may have been furloughed to get in touch and to use the rare opportunity of being off work to get involved in volunteering.
It is also asking train operating companies that are currently experiencing historically low passenger volumes to consider putting staff with excess capacity through its bespoke suicide prevention training courses.
Peters says: “We’ve had to adapt our ways of working because so much of what we do is face-to-face. Our training courses are now being delivered online, and so we encourage operators with staff at home or with less to do to put them through our courses.
“Our helplines remain open. We’re trying to carry on as well as we can and I encourage people to get in touch.”
Sutherland adds: “30% of our volunteers have had to self-isolate at one point or another, but our volunteers have been extraordinary. Lots of people have been emailing from home and we now have online training, so if anyone wants to volunteer, please just visit our website.
“Fundraising is a major challenge for us at the moment. There is some government support but it’s nothing like the loss of major events such as the London Marathon. We’ve also had a good response from our emergency appeal, so I’m not too concerned for our immediate future, but as for the longer term… you can’t have an emergency appeal every year.”
Other ways to support Samaritans include signing up to its Feel Good Book Club, which was launched in May and is supported by award-winning authors such as Elizabeth Day.
Each month, book club members will receive a bumper box containing a hand-picked uplifting book and carefully chosen gifts based on a specific wellbeing theme.
Once they have finished their book, readers are then invited to come together and review it on the Feel Good Book Club Facebook page.
Prices start at £16.49 per month for an annual subscription with all proceeds going to
The Our Frontline campaign is responsive to the current situation and provides additional support to our key workers. Ruth Sutherland, CEO, Samaritans
Samaritans.
Looking ahead, both Sutherland and Peters are optimistic that the Coronavirus pandemic will also have some positive outcomes for society and its long-standing partnership with the rail industry - provided the greater sense of neighbourliness and community spirit that the lockdown has helped foster can be captured and retained when social distancing measures begin to be lifted.
The selflessness shown by those who volunteered to help people in their communities by delivering food and prescriptions, combined with the appreciation shown by much of the population through the weekly Clap for Carers events, has demonstrated the sort of caring attitude which will go a long way in suicide prevention.
Peters says: “It will be interesting to see what social impact the pandemic has had, but I have certainly noticed more neighbourliness and a greater sense of who our key workers are and who we value as frontline staff.
“Although we talk about people in crisis, there is much we can do before it gets to that stage which involves making connections and asking after each other. When you’ve had a chance to get out and about there’s been a real joy from people to see other people, when they’ve been stuck behind glass and closed doors. Hopefully we can retain that.”
Sutherland concludes: “I hope this will ignite volunteering again, because I think a lot of people have got a buzz from helping out one another. One thing people have definitely learned is the value of making connections, which is what Samaritans is all about.
“We can see that some people and key workers will be traumatised for a long time, so this isn’t going to go away. When the furlough scheme retracts, more and more people will become unemployed and the impact on mental health will be huge.
“But when you are in your darkest hour and life is tough, emotions can be overwhelming - which is why we are here to help and support people.”