Supporting the Community

As well as the core Samaritan listening service that we provide from our centre in Hove we do much to try to make sure we publicise and speak about our service to as many potential volunteers and callers as possible.

Some of the ways in which we support the community are:

• Supporting Listeners in Lewes Prison
• Giving school talks
• Talking to organisations
• Supporting Sussex Jurors
• Supporting GP’s & Health Professionals
• Working with other agencies
• Events such as Pride

Support to Lewes Prison

Within many prisons, Samaritans have trained listeners to support other prisoners who are in emotional distress. We support the prisoners at Lewes prison and visit on Monday evenings and Wednesdays to support the listeners.

All of us involved with these visits never cease to wonder at the skill and dedication of the prisoners who volunteer for the role of listener. They are on call for 24 hours a day seven days a week.

The Safer Custody Officer works closely with us and promotes our role within the Prison.

Outreach and Talks

We regularly receive requests from a variety of groups and organisations asking us to come along and talk about Samaritans. An increasing number of these come from local schools who want to include our specially adapted sessions in their course curricula.

This is a fantastic way for us to promote our work to the often hard to reach 15-16 year olds who may at some point in their lives need someone to talk to or who may, themselves, become Samaritans of the future.

Supporting Sussex Jurors

We support Jurors who have completed trials at Brighton, Hove and Lewes Courts, offering them the same confidential service we offer all of our callers after what can be a stressful experience.

GP & Health Referrals

We also reach out to doctors surgeries and mental health teams and forge links with other health professionals to offer our service to those patients who would benefit in having a ‘listening ear’.

Partnership Working

We work with other agencies across our local area to promote emotional health and suicide awareness. We also sit on committees and partnership groups with the PCT and other and try to ensure that Samaritans supports other agencies and provides information and knowledge about suicide awareness and better emotional health.

If you are interested in working with Samaritans please contact us at brighton@samaritans.org.