Anne Ponische shared insights on the work of the Samaritans with Narberth Ladies Probus, emphasising listening, confidentiality, and supporting those in crisis.

Anne had worked as a Samaritan for some years at the local branch in Haverfordwest and was able to give a detailed understanding of both the history and aims of the organisation.

The first call was taken by the Rev’d Chad Varah, a London vicar, in November 1953. He had been offering counselling to his parishioners for some time and felt there should be a specific emergency contact number to help people contemplating suicide.

Today the Samaritans have more than 200 branches in the United Kingdom and there are over 22,000 volunteers. There are ten branches in Wales and about fifty active listeners from Pembrokeshire.

The Samaritans’ vision is that fewer people die by suicide. The key values are listening, confidentiality, human contact, being non-judgemental and, perhaps the most difficult, helping people to make their own decisions wherever possible.

In order to become a Samaritan, interviews take place and references are taken up. They then attend a number of training sessions before being assigned a mentor. After approximately six months they are given an official Samaritan number, but training is still ongoing.

Samaritans commit to a duty shift each week and one unsociable hours shift each month. Shifts are about three hours long and most undertake five duties a month – some do significantly more.

Anne outlined the many challenges the work entailed, especially when detailing with someone expressing suicidal thoughts. Although Samaritans accept (outside of their safeguarding policy) that people have the right to self-determination, their aspiration is always that they choose to live.

Anne concluded by stating that listening can be really hard, as many of us are used to giving advice to ‘fix’ a problem. As a Samaritan, she was tasked to listen and give someone a safe place to share their feelings, without judgement.

President Elect Jane John thanked Anne for her most informative and discerning talk. The next meeting will be at 11am on Friday, September 5 at the Plas hotel, Narberth. New members are always welcome.