A Public Service Announcement

This is National Suicide Prevention Week. The Samaritans work quietly in the background, day and night, to help people on the edge. They're too much in the background, because what they do is enormously important:

Those familiar with Samaritans are aware that we are not advice givers or problem solvers. The first reaction from many people, including some who have become our most active volunteers, is to ask why anyone bothers to call in the first place. If we’re not going to solve the problem, what is the use? It’s a fair and challenging question, and we think our answer is just as fair and just as challenging. For many people in our society, it seems as if no one cares enough to stop and listen. We live in a world in which acknowledging loneliness, need and despair is often seen a badge of weakness and shame. For many of our callers, it is extraordinarily difficult to dial our phone number, let alone respond to a volunteer who answers the telephone, “Samaritans, can I help you?” It is all too common for a Samaritan or Samariteen to hear seven or eight or ten sighs, followed by seven or eight clicks as the phone is hung up, before – on the ninth call -- a caller finally says, “Yes. Do you think I could talk to you?”

Suicide leave behind a would that never heals:



The Samaritans know that a call at the right moment - someone who cares - can make a difference. This is a song from someone who's walked a similar path himself: