Suicide prevention: will you reach out and help us to help those at risk?
Samaritans is a community response to suicide and emotional crisis. Trained volunteers give their time and effort with the ultimate aim that fewer people will end their life through suicide.
While suicide, and the feelings that give rise to it, are often very complex, the Samaritans’ approach is simple: any hour of day or night there are volunteers available to support those in danger of ending their own lives.
This provides time and space for those in crisis to think things through and, we hope, find a way forward. Samaritans and other voluntary groups working in this area need the support of everyone in the community to help boost awareness of the services available to help people in crisis.
A key issue behind the titling of the Reach Out strategy is just how few suicidal people seek help. The more that everyone in the community knows about organisations like Samaritans, the greater the chance that someone consumed by suicidal feelings might feel able to make a call or send an email.
A community-based charity, such as Samaritans, has limited financial resources to advertise its telephone number in a commercial advertising environment. Samaritans Galway have produced a ‘you’re not alone’ window sticker and are calling for people in Galway and Mayo to play a part in helping spread awareness by distributing and displaying it. The sticker is intended for display in cars and shops or any other prominent public place. It is hoped that it will be a beacon for any person who may be at risk of suicide.
There are many other similar initiatives, such as volunteer recruitment campaigns, under way in other Samaritans branches throughout Ireland. I hope that as your readers informed themselves of the strategy after reading your reports in recent days, they will be moved to get involved.
Gerard O’Connor
Volunteer and Director
Samaritans Galway
14 Nuns Island
Galway
Tel: 091 561222; 1850 609090 (24 hours)
