'He cried and said my phone doesn't ring, nobody calls me' - Newbridge Samaritans
Meet the volunteers at Newbridge Samaritans who are on call around the clock to help vulnerable people
Newbridge Samaritans describe themselves as a close family who collectively volunteer 24/7 to chat to people struggling with issues such as loneliness.
The Leinster Leader spoke to four volunteers ahead of national awareness day 24/7 on July 24 to find out what being a Samaritans volunteer involves and who exactly is reaching out to them for help.
Newbridge Samaritans currently has around 100 volunteers who answer phone calls from people who need someone to talk to.
The organisation typically receives about 100 calls every single day.
The organisation revealed that one of their main demographics is men who are lonely and need someone to talk to. However, anyone at all can reach out - even children as young as ten-years-old have contacted the helpline.
Director of Newbridge Samaritans, Heidi Shanahan, said that the organisation is like a close family.
“We all support one another, you're never on your own. When I came here, I'd lost close friends to suicide and I just wanted to be there for somebody and it's really opened my eyes to what's going on and I feel so lucky when I go home.
“I think my problems just pale in comparison to some of the things you'd hear on the phone”.
Heidi described one sad moment to highlight just how important their organisation is.
“We had one gentleman and we offered to call him back and he actually cried and said my phone doesn't ring, nobody calls me and it just meant so much to him that we could ring him back and just have that chat and check in with him.
“There's a lot of people who have absolutely nobody to talk to so you know without that phone call they could have gone all day or a few days without talking to anybody”.
Heidi said that the hardest part for them is fundraising because they don't get any income and rely only on donations from the public.
“We have to fundraise every year between €35,000 and €40,000 to keep this place going”.
“We take nearly 100 calls a day in Newbridge. There's 24 branches throughout the island of Ireland so there's always somebody available on the phone whenever you need to pick up the phone. Isolation, loneliness, finances, relationships, just anybody going through a difficult time please ring us”.
Kildare man Sean Deay has been a volunteer with the Newbridge Samaritans for about ten years.
Before retiring and joining the group in 2017, Sean worked on a dairy farm in Ballytore for the majority of his life.
“About two days after I retired, I heard one of the ladies here looking for volunteers on the local KFM radio.
“I decided, well, to hell with it. I'll try that. I said to myself, I'll go into Newbridge and I'll see how I get on.
“I had a different idea actually of the Samaritans before I joined but I was so glad that I did go with it then. It turned out okay”.
Sean’s role, as well as being a listener on the phones, is health and safety and maintenance around the building in Newbridge.
“I found that once I had joined up, I got great satisfaction out of being able to walk out of here and be able to say, well, you may not know it yourself, but you may have helped someone.
“To be there, to listen to someone, because there's all kinds of problems. We get all kinds of problems with the calls we get. There's nothing specific about them. It's not all about suicide”.
Sean said that about 85% of their calls are non-suicidal calls and the big proportion of the calls would be loneliness, especially in men.
He also said that this seems be a growing issue.
“With homelessness and the cost of living and all that kind of stuff, it all has a knock-on effect on people. Over the years, I've found that especially farmers with small plots of land and living on their own and coming in at night and no one in the house.
“Maybe they have gone down to the local for a few drinks and when they come home, they feel that little bit lonely”.
Sean said that he really looks forward to coming in and volunteering every week.
“When I joined first, I said to myself, I'll give it one year and if I'm not happy with it, I'll just quit. I didn't. I kept coming back.
“Maybe three years ago, I took four months out because I think it's a good idea to take a break from everything and I really missed it. There are volunteers in this place here for maybe 20 years, 30 years. I intend to stay for another while anyway”.
Sean said that he encourages other people to “give it a go” and said initially he thought to himself that he couldn’t do it at first.
“But the amount of satisfaction that you get from helping a person, you're giving something back. It's a great place to work in here, to be a volunteer here. We're like a family here. We bounce off of each other and we're all very, very good friends”.
Former dental nurse of about 12 years, Rose Coffey has been volunteering for Newbridge Samaritans for eight years.
Rose had experience chatting to her patients at the dentist and learned that she enjoyed listening to people’s stories, worries, concerns and being there to let it all out.
“It's rewarding to know that you are there as a safe place for somebody to be able to open up and talk about what's on their mind and that they know they won't get judged.
“They won't get any advice, even if they ask for it, we don't give advice. We will just try to help them maybe reflect on what they're saying to us and maybe that will help them to rethink what is going on in their mind that they might be able to find their own resolution to”.
Rose said that just having a chat can help so much and she, like Sean, said that loneliness is the cause of the majority of their calls.
“In this world now where everybody just lives on their phone, it can be kind of isolating. But here we all look after each other”.
Newbie Aoibhínn has just finished her training and started as a listener by herself for the first time. The 26-year-old said that it's not all the time that people are happy when they're calling or it's not all the time that you'll finish a call and people are saying that they feel better.
“Sometimes people are still distressed, you're not always getting a sense of helping people. But you do always get to make a connection with someone, and that's really fulfilling”.
Ahead of their national awareness day 24/7, the Samaritans are reaching out for volunteers and donations as they rely solely on the generosity of the public to keep their organisation in operation.
They are particular looking for early birds and night owls. Anyone who is interested in joining the team or donating can visit the webpage here.