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Samaritans to close email and letters service

mp500

I just found out today that The Samaritans are closing their long running email and letter services. 

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/letter-writing-service-closing/

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/email-service-closing/

Since The Samaritans are often recommended by people on these boards, I thought this was worth pointing out since many people who suffer from autism and other related mental health problems either find speaking on the telephone to be difficult, or lack the privacy to do so.

They say that they "cannot provide immediate support" by letter. Indeed when I've used them they have taken weeks to reply, but that isn't really the point. Being able to think about what you are saying, in your own time, is more important than the immediacy. 

This isn't really surprising. Last year, they announced that they were intending to close half their branches, and have some volunteers "work from home".

  • I'd first contacted the samaritains during 2020,where I was struggling with the covid 19 outbreak.

    Preferred email, but some volunteers said I was emailing them loads of times and should phone them. There's isn't enough privacy around me.

    One year I did the letter service which was really good. 

    The webchat is my Preferred method as I'm used to this and easier. 

    The only problem is that some of the volunteers ask me do I work or lost confidence in working again. I ended up termination of the call. What I supposed to say? I end up saying I do volunteering at my group.*

    Going to carry on with this service.

    *I certainly don't want to go through this again, with another company. No support, bullying and easily promoted. Also recruiting the wrong people. 

  • I wish I could say this surprised me, but it dosen't, I've never had much faith in the samaritans after a bad experience with them years ago.

  • This is sad. There are very few services which can be contacted when feeling unable to speak verbally. 

  • I hate it, I really do hate it (the fact they're closing the email service). From what I've gathered they have (or at least had post 2020) cutback massively on the in person services too (which I'll admit I never used). I found the email replies could be robotic sometimes, but the reply times from my experience were fairly decent, they massively improved after the announcement of the decision to cease the service and the last time I used it I got a relatively passive aggressive note at the bottom questioning why I didn't call.

    Not only do I have zero privacy, I find talking on the phone very difficult and it's much easier for me to compartmentalize my thoughts via typing. The Calm webchat is a poor man's version of Samaritans webchat (which is barely open when I need it), and the less I mention Shout the better after I was held for a 4 hour wait a few months back.

    And while I know more dedicated services exist for it, it really hurts people who could be in domestically abusive scenarios where many people end up using older technology to communicate via email or messages opposed to meeting up or calls.