IN OPERATION for more than 60 years, Samaritans Omagh has been covering the areas of Fermanagh amd Tyrone with its support line and outreach programmes.

Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Although based at the Campsie Road, Omagh, Samaritans Omagh covers Fermanagh and has many volunteers from this area.

Describing the role of a Samaritans volunteer, Fiona – Director of Samaritans Omagh – said: “We are active listeners. In Samaritans we don’t give advice; we don’t tell people what to do. We are there for listening for them.

“The way we describe it is, if you have an issue and I said to you, ‘Don’t do that, don’t do this’, you’re possibly going to say, ‘But I want to do that’.

“So, Samaritans don’t say that at all – we listen, and we reflect on what your feelings are on it, so that you come to your own decision rather than us telling you what to do.

“The important thing is we are not emotionally attached to anybody, as in we don’t know the situation – we are only hearing part of it – and we are not family, so we’re not going to say ‘You should have done that’,” she said, adding that, to be a Samaritan, a person needs to be a “kind human being who is willing to listen, not judge, and not tell people what to do, just be there”.

She went on to explain that when a person makes a call to Samaritans at 116 123, it will be answered by a volunteer who will ask, “Can I help you?”, said Fiona.

“Some people don’t feel comfortable to talk, but it’s their decision and sometimes we have silent callers who would find it very hard to speak at first, but it’s up to them, and they steer the call in that they tell us where they want to go,” said Fiona.

She went on to note that some people prefer to use email correspondence, and they can also contact Samaritans via jo@samaritans.org.

The vision of Samaritans is that fewer people die by suicide. Their mission is to make sure that there’s someone there for anyone who needs someone.

They give people ways to cope and the skills to be there for others, and they campaign to make suicide prevention a national and local priority.

Talking about the importance of Samaritans’ outreach in places such as schools, Fiona said: “The one thing that we always struggle with is people say, ‘Samaritans are there for the suicidal’, and some schools would always be very wary when we’d come in that [they] don’t want to talk about suicide, because there’s a theory that if you don’t talk about it, it’ll go away.

“In fact, that’s very much not the case – suicides are still going up. Mental health is seriously affected with the lockdown, so it’s very much important to have us there.”

When asked what she would say to someone who would like support from Samaritans, but are maybe anxious about making the call, Fiona said: “If they feel that they are ready to talk – and only when they are ready to talk themselves, or they feel that they want to send us an email either – there will be a kind person at the end of the phone, ready to listen to them.

“There’s not one stereotypical problem that people ring us up about, so it’s a privilege to listen to people, and be there,” she told this newspaper.

You can call Samaritans, free, at 116 123; you can also email jo@samaritans.org.