Samaritans

Employee Benefits Awards are proud to have Samaritans as its 2012 charity partner.

Samaritans are available 24 hours a day to provide emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of emotional distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide. Those who contact Samaritans represent all ages and lifestyles, from the unemployed to the captains of industry. People call Samaritans because of bereavement, divorce, depression, redundancy or debt - problems that could affect anyone.

With a call received every six seconds, and 5 million contacts a year through phone, email, text , face to face and letter, Samaritans is a lifeline for anyone in distress. 18,500 volunteers, at 200 branches, listen to people who need someone to talk to in confidence. Samaritans also works in local communities, reaching out to vulnerable groups in schools, prisons, hospitals, festivals and in the workplace.  

Samaritans has identified that although employees feel sufficiently trained in practical work areas the majority of employees can feel inadequately prepared for emotionally challenging situations including handling distressed customers and staff members. In order to support early intervention, Samaritans also designs and delivers bespoke specialist training courses for front-line staff and managers based on almost 60 years of experience in handling difficult conversations and supporting those in emotional distress.

Our courses are designed to equip managers with the skills to resolve difficult issues early on and help individuals build resilience in the workplace to help reduce long term sickness absence due to stress, anxiety and depression. As such, it supports the Health and Safety Executive’s standards and guidelines for tackling work related stress and mental health issues in the workplace.  

Through our external training we are able to work with organisations to alleviate emotional distress in the workplace for staff and customers, as well as generating proceeds to support the provision of our crucial telephone, email, text and postal services contributing to the welfare of the 2.8 million people who contact Samaritans each year.

Please help support Samaritans to make the workplace a more emotionally healthy and supported environment for everyone by giving a donation when you submit your entry.  

If you are interested in finding out more about Samaritans Workplace Training please contact Zoë Polglase: z.polglase@samaritans.org or 0208 394 8388.