Samaritans end ‘insensitive’ text message help for those in distress

Charity to close its SMS service after only 2,000 texts a month, compared with 250,000 phone calls

THE Samaritans charity has scrapped its text message service after admitting it is not sensitive enough to deal with people in distress and at risk of suicide.

It said the SMS service could not replace the one-to-one human contact provided by its telephone volunteers.

The charity said it found that the format of the text message service did not allow those contacting the organisation for help to properly express themselves and engage with its trained volunteers.

Ruth Sutherland, the Samaritans’ chief executive, said: “We recently concluded that its limited format, in terms of length, means it isn’t the best way of communicating with someone who is looking for support.

“This is particularly the case when the content of the message is expected to be emotive. We should consider the principle that the more people express themselves, the better, and the more therapeutic and the more impactful the engagement.”

The numbers using the SMS service to contact the Samaritans was tiny compared with the volume of telephone calls received by the charity from people in distress. There were 2,000 contacts per month by SMS compared with 250,000 telephone calls.

Feedback from volunteers and callers suggested that the text format was not sensitive enough to cope with people at risk of suicide.

The Samaritans will launch a live online chat service in April as a replacement for its text service, trialling it in 14 branches before rolling it out nationally later in the year. The charity is understood to feel that this format will provide a more sensitive and effective way for those who do not want to use the telephone to contact them for help.

Ms Sutherland said: “Our online chat service will mean that we can provide a new channel of support that will help us reach more people.

“Ninety-four per cent of callers who left feedback during the online chat pilots said they would use the service again, with some commenting on the improvement from SMS. Volunteer feedback was also highly positive.”

She added: “Ultimately, we’re looking for ways of communicating that lead to the best, most effective outcomes for the people contacting us.”

The charity said anyone who still wanted to use text messaging to ask for help could turn to Shout, a SMS service for those in crisis launched by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex last year.

The Samaritans has 20,000 volunteers who answer a call for help every six seconds. In 2018, volunteers answered 3.6million telephone calls and responded to 420,000 emails.

Feedback found the text format was not sensitive enough to cope with people at risk of suicide