AFTER celebrating its 60th year of anonymously helping those with emotional distress, the army of dedicated Bournemouth Samaritans are going from strength to strength.

With more than 150 volunteers, the Bournemouth branch of the Samaritans charity had contact with just under 30,000 people in need last year – despite the struggles so many organisations faced during the pandemic.

Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide, mostly through a telephone helpline.

Strict over caller confidentiality and volunteer anonymity, the Samaritans freely give up their time to help those with nobody else to turn to.

The Echo spoke with the Bournemouth branch director, ‘Charlie’, who has worked with the charity for nearly 10 years.

Bournemouth Echo: Bournemouth Samaritans director 'Charlie'Bournemouth Samaritans director 'Charlie'

He said: “We’re not a secret agency, our volunteers come to work, do their shift and go home. But they make a big difference.

“We provide emotional support for a range of things. It might be bereavement, it might be unemployment, loneliness, even Covid.

“It used to be, up until around five or six years ago, that if you called Samaritans in Bournemouth you’d get through to the Bournemouth branch – now there’s a national number. So when I’m on duty I could be speaking to someone in Yorkshire or Northern Ireland.”

There are currently 138 call listeners and 14 support staff in Bournemouth.

Interestingly, Charlie said Covid did not make much impact in terms of call volume. He said that Covid has often become a topic of discussion with callers, however the volume has remained largely the same compared to pre-pandemic levels.

It has, however, changed the way new staff are trained with new recruits learning over Zoom instead of face to face. Charlie recalled during one evening in January, all five Bournemouth volunteers on shift had been trained during lockdown.

Bournemouth Samaritans also has its own listening dog. Siri is a three-year-old Golden Retriever which acts as a stress reliever for people in need of comfort. This service can be used in face-to-face appointments which are offered at the discretion of volunteers.

They also run a charity shop in Old Christchurch Road in which students from the nearby Bournemouth University often volunteer at.

You can contact Samaritans by calling 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org for more information.