Samaritans 'proactive' in preventing suicide

BOGNOR branch was being very proactive in attempting to help reduce the number of suicides '“ 1m each year '“ one every 40 seconds, it was reported at the annual meeting of Bognor Regis, Chichester and District Samaritans held at Chichester High School for Girls on November 2.

By The Newsroom

Published 13th Nov 2007, 11:07 BST

Updated 7th Jun 2018, 19:10 BST

The branch has about 20,000 contacts each year, by telephone, by callers at the door and more commonly these days, by email.

It is hoped that once a distressed person finds a listening ear at Samaritans, it enables her or she to take a fresh look at their situation.

The keynote speaker at the evening was West Sussex County Council chairman Mrs Margaret Johnson, who gave an interesting and informative talk about the tremendous amount of volunteer work being done in West Sussex and how it enhanced the lives of both the volunteers and those receiving the service.

Unfortunately, cash restraints meant that the county council were not able to support every scheme and hard decisions had to be taken to spend public money wisely.