There’s more going on just beneath the surface

I had the pleasure of meeting two new groups of Samaritans Listening Volunteers in one day. The first was at Channings Wood Prison, where we run a listener scheme. Three new Samaritans have just completed their training and are ready to take contacts from fellow inmates.

Whenever people learn about our work with the prison for the first time, it’s usually met with a degree of surprise. Viewed from the outside, what we do as Samaritans is a bit like an iceberg, only a small percentage is visible, but there’s much more going on beneath the surface.  Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll enlighten you, including about the work that goes on behind locked doors, but that will need to be vetted first!

I also sat in on a training session for our latest group of eleven new Listening Volunteers in our branch, I was impressed with them to say the least, it looks like our recruitment team are doing a fine job.

They were looking in detail, for the first time, at ‘Self-Determination and Suicide’, clearly a very challenging subject and one that can, and does, raise a variety of difficult emotions, both in our new Samaritans and our Trainers alike. We are all, first and foremost, human.

We train our volunteers to ask the very difficult questions that, for the most part, simply cannot be asked by a relative or someone close to the caller. For example, “are you saying that you want to end your life?” Crucially, this is asked without judgement and part of a ‘stepped approach’ to learning more about the individual’s situation – how it feels for them.

Often, one of the most difficult concepts for our new Samaritans to get their heads around and for them to reconcile is the very idea of self-determination. Aside from a safeguarding concern, Samaritans respect the right of an individual to make their own decisions, including if they have made a decision to end their own life.

At first sight, that seems to fly in the face of Samaritans core vision: “That fewer people die by suicide”. Just beneath the surface though is the understanding that whenever somebody who is experiencing this type of despair calls us, there is an opportunity.

If we squandered that opportunity by being judgmental or offering advice, the chances are that, not only we would fail to really listen to them in our haste to try to ‘fix’ their situation, but they would most likely never call us again. The opportunity to help them to find a way through would be lost.

Furthermore, the very fact that we are known for respecting our callers’ fundamental right to self-determination, being non-judgmental and – in the vast majority of calls – confidential, breaks down the barriers to calling us for people in despair, giving us that opportunity.

There are, of course, many other reasons why we do what we do in the way that we do it.  We work within a clear set of boundaries that make up the framework of our service. Sometimes, we may venture close to the line of that boundary, but individually and collectively, we have a duty not to cross it.

Our service has evolved enormously over the past fifty-seven years that South Devon Samaritans has been supporting callers and it will continue to evolve, perhaps a little too fast for some, in order to keep up with our callers’ needs.

As with any big organisation – and we are big – evolving can create challenges and change needs to be managed effectively. That iceberg isn’t likely to get smaller any time soon, but as long as we keep our callers’ needs at the forefront of our minds, we'll continue to deliver a highly effective service when we’re needed.

If you, or someone you know needs to talk, we are here to listen. Call free on 116123 anytime, alternatively you can email: [email protected]. If you’re interested in Volunteering with us or you would like to donate, go to www.samaritans.org/branches/torquay

Dean Sanders

Branch Director, South Devon Samaritans