Review Time
If I could give 0 stars I would, if I didn't want to take a bath with my toaster b4 my call I sure as hell would after, patronising and refused to Contact the police dispe me triggering all safeguarding and child safeguarding issues I could, I'd say call the police instead but It makes you wanna yeet yourself, I've actually volunteered under a different name for these people and they have broken every legislation they can. Don't worry tho I'll mention them in my suicide note .......
I have been using the Samaritans since my mother died in 2011.I never felt suicidal before her death and needed to reach out to someone.My feelings about Samaritans are very mixed.Some volunteers are fantastic. Experienced, skillful, good communicators. However, that is down to them and not the Samaritans.My main problem with the Samaritans is that it is so random..It is possible to develop a rapour very quickly with someone and never speak with them again. Then speak with someone the next time who is horrible and unhelpful. The inconsistency is the worst of all.As for Samaritans head office I think they are disgusting. Doing their best to kill people off.I got banned from the head office for phoning too much. I wasn't willing to play the victim for them and they could not handle one of the "lower classes" standing up for themself.I think that the Samaritans represent a general shut down of all public services including NHS, Libraries, schools, bus, trains etc. This government does not believe in funding public services meaning that if you have no money one is forced rely on useless services like Samaritans or try to cope on one's own which is far from easy. I think the Samaritans are deliberately poor to isolate people and push people to the brink and force many over the edge of the abyss.
The Samaritans are poorly untrained individuals who quiz people to make out there listening but do so to fulfil their own sick curiosity. Then, I have observed, they belittle the caller by saying some pathetic opinion or viewpoint but not an empowering one.Not trauma informed at all (which they should be, for a suicide helpline, at the very least) and the least empowering helpline I’ve ever contacted.After I hung up, I was angry, distressed, disempowered and actually felt a little queasy (stress, or anxiety probably) from the volunteers inappropriate questions and quizzing .The victim mindset was enabled, even encouraged and the lady was out of her depth speaking to an empowered female who wanted a space and a listening ear to take responsibility. Still, she belittled me and I hang up.Made me sickDon’t call the Samaritans Try CALM
When I was 16 I called the samaritans, I called and I sobbed on the other line hoping and praying someone would be with me after taking an overdose and I wouldn't be alone.To my surprise, the person on the other end of the phone hung up the call and didn't even say hello or ask if I was OK.I'm now 25, I struggle with autism and I've never been more mortified by a company in my whole entire life to leave a 16 year old girl suffering, when she needed help the most. This is something I will never forget.I hope my children feel comfortable enough to come to me when they feel down and don't have to rely on a company like this who is only going to make them feel more alone.
I wouldn’t even give Samaritans a star rating! But in order to give your review you have to give a star rating!!! If it was my choice there would be no rating! Poor poor helpline shouldn’t even exist!! Absolutely no help at all and should be ashamed to call themselves a helpline! I worry for People that suffer as much as I do and worse and have no option but to turn to this poor helpline!!!!!!!! I’ll say it again you all should be very ashamed to call yourself a helpline or anything!!! I hope everyone struggling like myself out there is ok and has better helplines to turn to than this poor poor helpline!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no idea why they label themselves as a suicide prevention service.I knew that they used to be told just to listen and not actually help people - just basically sit on the phone going "yeah, I know, that must be difficult, etc" but I thought that considering the massive funding injection from the NHS and the need for actual suicide prevention (particularly, but not exclusively, during the pandemic), they would have improved their service to, you know, actually prevent suicide.But it's not the case. Despite having an e-mail from them suggesting (albeit vaguely) that they do actually help suicidal people, they really don't. I had to call them last night (because my local NHS crisis team is about as useful as a chocolate teapot) and it was just "mmm"... "how does that make you feel?"... "mmm"... "mmm". Suicidal people generally need support and advice, or at least encouragement to find their own solutions. Yet years after a minority of more experienced Samaritans have written that they helped suicidal people by ignoring the Samaritans protocol of just sitting there like someone who doesn't know what to say (and then had to quit because they were ignoring protocol in order to save lives), it's clear that the protocol is exactly the same - yet instead of providing a proper service, the NHS just directs people to Samaritans - over 10 minutes, sometimes an hour or more, just to get someone basically saying "yeah" and "mmm" over and over. I can get that if I call up a supermarket helpline, as they're not qualified to deal with people with mental health issues - and clearly, neither are the Samaritans. I actually genuinely considered phoning up a random company that had a 24-hour helpline, but decided against it because they wouldn't have known what to say and likely wouldn't have been able to say anything useful - yet Samaritans is exactly the same!The funding given to them should have been used to fund genuine NHS mental health services with genuinely qualified and genuinely caring people (not the disinterested, ignorant, and clearly unqualified people at many NHS crisis lines). Even just a normal conversation may have helped, but the Samaritans volunteer (why are they all volunteers after the funding injection anyway?) couldn't even do that.Sadly I can imagine someone at a train station or bridge, about to throw themselves into a train, reading a Samaritans advert and calling them up for help, only to feel worse because their last-ditch call for help resulted in no support.
I would rate this organisation zero stars if I could. I have phoned twice and there is never an answer, just a dial tone. Possibly the worst sound you can hear if you are genuinely suicidal. The organisation is a travesty. A joke. It would be better they did not exist at all than that they allow desperate people to encounter this.
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