UK and Eire – calls to the samaritans now free from mobiles

the samaritans describe themselves as an emotional support service, and they offer confidential advice and support via a number of different media. traditionally they’ve always been a free telephone service because lack of money should never be a barrier for someone who is in despair, but until recently mobile phone users were still charged by their network providers for these calls. in 2009, numbers with the 116 prefix were made available as freefone numbers for mobiles. the press release on the samaritans site lists the following:
116 123 will be used for an emotional support helpline, provided by Samaritans
116 111 will be used for a child helpline, provided by NSPCC (which runs ChildLine)
116 000 will be used for a missing people helpline, provided by Missing People
outside the british isles, a similar service is available through befrienders. if you want to add details of any other similar services, please feel free to add them in the comments (comments are moderated and so won’t appear immediately, but are checked daily)

why bother?

ok, so you might have read the mission statement and thought, that sounds like a nice idea, but a whole lot of effort. why would i bother?

 

so that’s the big question isn’t it? why bother? why bother trying to make things better? what difference can you make? won’t you just end up frustrated anyway?

 

i’m not gonna lie to you, you might. not every time, but sometimes. sometimes you’ll help someone and they’ll be so wantonly self-assured that they won’t even notice you’ve helped them, let alone acknowledge it. and sometimes you will accept help but will end up feeling beholden to your benefactor and wishing you’d muddled through alone.

 

but in my experience, if you get into the habit of doing this all the time, and don’t let yourself stop because of one cretin taking advantage, these cretins are the exception, not the rule, and most people, when you do nice things are genuinely surprised and grateful, and more likely to ask for help next time.

 

but then, it’s not just about the buzz you get from actually being able to help someone either. of course, that’s a nice feeling, and it’s part of what motivates us to do nice things – who doesn’t want to feel like a Good Person once in a while? but this is about more than that.

 

this is about doing it consistently, consciously, and tenaciously, so that people around you can see what it is just to be nice for the sake of making things nice, and maybe some of them will catch on. maybe someone will notice that you always do the right thing, and it’s seldom that anyone has an ill word to say about you, and maybe they’ll make the connection, who knows?

 

one thing i do know is that you’re unlikely to make the world worse by being nice, so it’s worth a shot, right?

 

if you’re still not convinced, that’s fine – drop me a mail and let me know your reservations