Over 22,000 calls handled last year by local Samaritans

Athlone and Midland Samaritans received over 22,000 calls in 2021 - that is over 60 calls each day during the year.

The Athlone and Midlands Samaritans Branch is situated at 3, Court Devenish, Athlone. Its catchment area is Westmeath, Offaly, Longford and Roscommon.

Athlone and Midland Samaritans have 75 volunteers who travel from all parts of the midlands to do their regular weekly duty. They have no paid staff and all of the work is done on a voluntary basis. Volunteers also undertake extra work in the area of recruitment and training of new volunteers, publicity and outreach activities.

The Athlone figure of 22,031 calls during 2021 emerged as the Samaritans Ireland Impact Report for 2021 was launched by Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler last week in Dublin.

Nationally, Samaritans volunteers in Ireland answered almost 1,000 calls a day last year as people continued to struggle with the impact of COVID and the lifting of restrictions.

Across the country, volunteers spent almost 70,000 hours on the phone giving support to callers. Samaritans is the only 24-hour emotional support helpline which covers the island of Ireland, with over 2,000 volunteers in 21 branches nationwide.

Executive Director for Samaritans Ireland, Niall Mulligan said the pandemic had a profound effect on people’s emotional wellbeing and highlighted the importance of human connection. “During the year, one in five calls for help to Samaritans was from someone worried about the impact of the pandemic, and over a third of callers felt isolated or lonely. Others faced new anxieties as restrictions were lifted,” he said.

“As an organisation we were challenged by the continuation of the pandemic and ongoing restrictions, however our amazing volunteers ensured that we were available to talk to our callers and provide them with emotional support.

“Their resilience, determination, and undeterred passion for our work shone through and their level of commitment made sure our freephone helpline number, 116 123, remained open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The report said volunteers answered a call for help every 64 seconds. Over 19,000 calls were taken from prisoners in Irish prisons.

The concerns were many and varied and included mental health and illness, isolation and loneliness, family, relationship problems and Covid.

Samaritans are available on Freephone 116 123 24hrs a day 7 days a week