THE majority of calls to the Samaritans are made in the early hours of the morning, a briefing session hosted by the charity has heard.
Local politicians were informed that Samaritans Ireland received more calls from midnight to 6am than at any other time during the day over the past year.
The figures were revealed in the organisation’s 2012-2013 Impact Report, which was launched in late December.
The report launch was followed by a briefing by volunteers from Dublin Samaritans for politicians across the city last week.
According to the report, 37 per cent of calls to the Samaritans’ helpline in the past year took place from midnight to 6am.
Midnight to 1am on Friday and Saturday nights were the busiest times of the week.
Out of hours calls to the Samaritans were up by nine per cent on 2012, and accounted for 68 per cent of all calls to the service.
Almost 10,000 people had face-to-face contact with Samaritans in 2013, which is a 14 per cent increase on last year.
While the number of calls received by Samaritans fell by seven per cent on last year the number of contacts through other mediums increased by 18 per cent.
Catherine Brogan, Executive Director of the Samaritans Ireland, said a number of dynamics had resulted in changes to the type and timing of contacts to Samaritans in 2013.
“For starters, we are noticing that night time periods are increasingly busy with more calls coming through, and these calls are lasting longer,
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“In our experience this is down to the fact that there are now more day time services and helplines available and as part of our partnership work, many of these divert into the Samaritans’ service after hours.
“It highlights the vital need to have a resilient, reliable and available support service round the clock, particularly when other front line services are closed.
“It’s clear that increasingly, Samaritans is acting as a safety net for all of Ireland’s emotional support services.
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The decrease in the number of telephone callers was the result of a combination of factors, according to Ms Brogan.
“To start with, calls are climbing down from an all time high of just over 400,000 in 2010/11 when the impacts of austerity were really begin felt.
“Some of the decrease in calls could be down to the fact that some people are feeling more hopeful about the future.
“However, we are also acutely aware, from the nature of calls to our service, that lots of people are still hurting very much. There has been a marked shift away from landline usage to mobiles, and this introduced an additional cost factor to people considering a call to Samaritans.
“With the launch of our free-to-caller number – 116123 – next year, this barrier will be removed.
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According to the figures, the issues of most concern to callers in 2013 related to family and relationship problems; depression and mental health issues; and loneliness and stress/ anxiety.
“With many of these issues, having the opportunity to talk them through with a trained listener offers huge relief,
? Ms Brogan added.
“Where Samaritans feels a person could benefit from a greater intervention, we sign post them to alternative services so that they can access the support they need.
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Samaritans Ireland is the longest-serving organisation in the area of emotional support and suicide prevention. It is volunteer-led, with 2,000 people volunteering around the country and 236 active volunteers in the Dublin branch.
The Samaritans’ helpline number is 1850609090. Further information about the organisation’s work is available at www.samaritans.ie.