Thurso Samaritans has provided a listening ear for 43 years and is looking for volunteers
Samaritans of Caithness will be celebrating its 43rd year of operations at Riverside Place in Thurso and wants the community to know it is there to listen to all those struggling with their mental health.
The volunteers have been there at the end of a telephone, to listen to anyone who is in a difficult place and has no one else they feel able to talk to.
Thurso volunteer Angie MacGregor has been working with Samaritans for around 30 years and spoke about how staff deal with calls from people in distress and feeling suicidal. "We believe in self-determination, so if someone wants to commit suicide we will talk about it with them and try to understand what's brought them to that particular place in their life," she said.
"Very often talking will delay what they're planning to do and they'll rethink it. Sometimes they're just trying out the idea. Very occasionally you'll get someone who will say I've taken these [tablets] or drunk this and 'will you wait with me while I go?' If they get to a point where they say 'I made a mistake' then we act but we can only act if they give us a name and their contact number."
Paramount to the role of a Samaritans volunteer is the respect for an individual's privacy and a non-judgemental stance – total confidence is essential. The organisation believes that "suicide is, for some, a last desperate resort" and it finds "that just talking really does help".
The Samaritans was begun after World War Two by a man whose first job as a clergyman was to officiate at the funeral of someone who had taken their own life. This experience, and the subsequent conversations with friends and relatives, left a lasting impression. He was to later open an experimental drop-in centre to try and offer help. He soon found that the tea, biscuits and listening ear of his helpers whilst they waited to see him, was exactly the right formula. The Samaritans has grown arms and legs since that first step, but the desire to be there for those in need remains the same.
Angie said that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating affect on the mental health of people. "The cost-of-living [crisis] and the worry about heating, the NHS and suchlike – these things come up in the phone calls we receive." She says that many of the issues are related to current topics, such as gender identity, but volunteers are not expected to be experts in these fields. "We're just ordinary folk who are there to listen and we don't judge. We're just a listening ear really."
Caithness Samaritans is run entirely on donations, requests, and the fundraising activities undertaken by its volunteers. You may have encountered them rattling collection tins in the local streets, or in the supermarkets. They also have a presence at the County Show, and other summer events in the county. All money collected and given stays in Caithness, and pays for telephone calls, heat, light and insurance.
The organisation is happy to run a small outreach programme, speaking to local societies and schools by invitation. Its work is seen as being very much "under the radar", so many questions are usually asked at such events.
Caithness Samaritans is always pleased to welcome new volunteers and is happy to talk and answer questions with anyone who is curious about its work. The training programme offered is "thorough and encouraging, and also fun". The organisation stresses how it seeks volunteers who are just "ordinary people" and who are able to spare a few hours every week to come into the centre and answer calls. If you are interested in helping, you can email angmaymac@gmail.com for more information. A Samaritan will call you back if you wish to leave a number.