Samaritans Scotland marks 60 years of providing a listening ear
● Volunteers say helping callers is ‘ rewarding experience’
It was founded 60 years ago this weekend, when a person in Edinburgh became the first Samaritans volunteer to pick up the phone to a caller outside London.
Now the charity has revealed it was contacted 249,000 times last year – once every two minutes – by people in need of support. Between them, volunteers in Scotland provided more than 60,000 hours of emotional support in 2018 alone – equivalent to 2,500 days of listening.
However, it warned that it needs to recruit 60 volunteers over the coming year in the Edinburgh branch alone to keep up with demand for its services.
There are now a total of 19 branches in Scotland, from Selkirk to the Shetland Islands.
The charity said people contact the Samaritans for a wide range of reasons – loneliness and social isolation, worries about family and relations hips, and problems with physical and mental health.
The f i rst Samaritans call in Scotland came on 1 June, 1959, with the charity receiving 550 calls over the coming 12 months.
James Jopling, executive director of Samaritans Scotland, said: “It’s remarkable to think that since that first call on 1 June, 1959, every single call, email, text or face to face visit to Samaritans Scotland, has been answered by a volunteer. We’ve supported countless people through times of crisis and distress through our anonymous, confidential and non- judgemental service.
“I t ’s clear t here i s j ust as much a need for this service now as when we started 60 years ago. And we’re committed to being there for anyone who needs us today and in the decades to come.
“But to make that happen we need more volunteers to support our life- saving work.”
Keith Walker, a volunteer with the Inverness branch, has al s o been working t o reduce the social isolation and loneliness of people living in the Highlands.
He said: “Samaritans Scotland has provided a listening ear to people when they needed it most for six decades and I feel very proud to have played a part in that.”
He added: “My years as a volunteer have shown me just how powerful the act of listening can be – by taking the time to listen you can help someone who may otherwise feel completely alone, to find their own way through whatever it is they are struggling with and find a sense of happiness and peace.
“When someone finishes a call with, ‘ Thanks for listening’ you know you’ve made a difference.”
Siobhan Mowat, a volunteer with the Edinburgh branch, joined when she was 24, seven years ago.
She said: “Volunteering with Samaritans is such a rewarding and eye- opening experience. It’s a really powerful thing to be able to be there for someone – a total stranger who may be just down the road or hundreds of miles away – and know that they are trusting you, maybe even with something they’ve never felt able to talk about before.
“People might imagine that you need some special skills to be a Samaritan but the truth is we’re all just ordinary people, from different backgrounds, using everyday skills.”