Samaritans- Im disgusted

[TimetoGo!]

When I log into this site (most days recently) , here in the UK it throws up the Samaritans website.....so today I clicked on it to see if they could actually help. The first thing I am met with is a plead to donate to them. They say ' your gift could save a life' and offer options to give £5, £24 or £42!!

'donate today' they say.

well fuck you Samaritans, I'd rather give my money to a REAL person who is struggling , not some organisation that seems only interested in making money out of misery.

They even have an online shop ffs

I just feel it is exploiting vulnerable people , or even people who have lost someone to suicide.

Am I wrong here or do people agree? it just pisses me off making money out of people struggling.

Im not shocked because we live in a world where everything is likes, subscribe, paywalls, donations, followers, hits....................BOLLOCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

[AerialBoundaries]

100% a scumbag move.

The organisations in the UK are all equally useless. There's no help out there and that's the way they want it.

 

[LookingOverTheEdge]

I rang them once and only once. They hung up on me before I even spoke to another human. I'm sure most of the people that work for them genuinely mean well. But yeah, the uk is broken

 

[Lavender Dreams]

First and foremost, I'd like to know if there is some transparency about how the said donations are utilised. If it's for more useless "depression awareness" and promotion nonsense, it's a mere step away from being as disgusting as filling their own pockets with money. Please note I don't mean paying the volunteers on call but the organisation itself. Different story if it was being used towards desperate people who don't have money for specific therapy they require, or medications but something tells me that isn't the case.

Assuming it's not strictly nefarious, it still feels manipulative because you'd be indirectly inclined to think that not donating means you're a terrible person for not saving fellow suicidals (Although it's probably not much different from most charities) The one thing in particular that does feel distasteful is that we all know typically it will be those who are about to ctb visiting, and vulnerable/empathetic individuals struggle more with saviour complex and guilt.

Years are passing by, and reality is proving itself to be increasingly dystopian... Sad world we live in.

 

[TimetoGo!]

First and foremost, I'd like to know if there is some transparency about how the said donations are utilised. If it's for more useless "depression awareness" and promotion nonsense, it's a mere step away from being as disgusting as filling their own pockets with money. Different story if it was being used towards desperate people who don't have money for specific therapy they require, or medications but something tells me that isn't the case.

Assuming it's not strictly nefarious, it still feels manipulative because you'd be indirectly inclined to think that not donating means you're a terrible person for not saving fellow suicidals (Although it's probably not much different from most charities) The one thing in particular that does feel distasteful is that we all know typically it will be those who are about to ctb visiting, and vulnerable/empathetic individuals struggle more with saviour complex and guilt.

Years are passing by, and reality is proving itself to be increasingly dystopian... Sad world we live in.

very true words........could'nt agree more

 

[FuneralCry]

It's very true that organisations like that only exist to profit from suffering, this is just the way that this society is, the people who work for organisations like that really couldn't care less about suicidal people, nobody cares about our problems even if they pretend to. Humans are certainly very self centred and I'm not even surprised as well that the Samaritans tries to scam people. And anyway lives cannot really be "saved", as we are all destined to die anyway, there is no escaping death.

 

[rationaltake]

Nobody has to donate to any charity if they don't want to. And nobody has to ring The Samaritans if they don't want to.

Maybe somebody could direct me to some evidence that The Samaritans organisation profits from their donations. I know there are plenty of unscrupulous practices on the part of charities. Look at the investigation into The Captain Tom Foundation.

 

[It'sMyLife]

Yeah that's pretty f'ed up alright. They ask for a handout before even bothering to see if you're in crisis which is what they're there for. Charities are all mostly money siphoning operations now and many I believe are money laundering operations as well. I don't believe most of them were founded on the idea of profiting on suffering but they rarely if ever alleviate suffering. Most are eaten up by bureaucracy now and most of the money goes to administrative costs. And of course they don't have to tell you how they spend (waste) the loot. A fair amount of the budget is spent raising more loot by telling you how wonderful and necessary they are when they really aren't. Many of the largest charitable institutions such as Carnegie are nothing but political influence operations fronting themselves as philanthropists. All of the wealthiest have their own now. Anyway, I hope you're having a good day and I'm
Sorry the UK is such a tyrannical country now. We're heading in the same direction here in the US. 99% of the politicians are corrupt

 

[UKscotty]

It's not their fault they couldn't help you. You have to be patient and willing to want help.

They do tremendous work and need donations to keep going. As for a shop, they sell stuff to spread the message.

Before you rant about those trying to help you should focus on the government and the people who vote them in.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Hmmm, I don't honestly know how I feel about this to be honest. I thought the people who worked the phones at The Samaritans were volunteers. I guess it does depend where that money is going.

I definitely agree that they shouldn't be trying to get that money from vulnerable suicidal people but I don't think it's necessarily wrong for them to be trying to bring money in.

I imagine all businesses have overheads. Presumably they need premises to work from? Presumably it's a freephone number? Someone has to pay for that... They obviously need to recruit their volunteers and interview them. Do they then have ANY training? I imagine they all need enhanced DBS checks- I doubt they're going to just let anyone work for them. They need computers presumably or some kind of switchboard and headsets. All that costs money. I doubt ALL their employees work for free either.

It would be good if they were funded via the government or even businesses but seeing as our government doesn't even fund the NHS properly... (would say Lol but it's not actually funny...)

I don't know quite what your stance is- you object to being asked to fund a pro-life organisation maybe? But it's like @Rational man just said- no one is forcing anyone to ring them. No one is being forced to donate either. I think it's highly likely some of that money will go towards making their service EVEN more prominant. Maybe it's that that's annoying you? Or- is it because the service isn't all that great? I don't actually know- I haven't rung them. I definitely agree that it's very inappropriate to be asking vulnerable people for money though- and presumably it is people in crisis that will be logging on there.

I often see so much flack about these hotlines. I can understand the frustration because they seem to be held up as the solution. Still- at the same time- I don't really know what people expect. I suppose in the world- as it currently stands- being very pro-life- I imagine ringing any suicide prevention hotline will result in them trying to prevent you from committing suicide! Donating to such an organization will result in them trying to prevent other people from committing suicide. BUT- it IS people who chose to rang them knowing full well (presumably) that that's what they would try to do. Some people DO want to be stopped I guess.

I suppose I would like it if there were numbers you could ring more for an open chat- without fear of the police arriving at your door. Still- it's got to be pretty hard for them in this blame culture when they are presented with someone on the edge (as it were.) It's got to feel like an enormous responsibility.

I actually do admire the people who work there for free. It's got to be REALLY distressing. I doubt they're all there on some egotistic virtue signal trip. I suspect many of them do actually care. Maybe I'm wrong though- like I say- I've never rung them.

I do understand your viewpoint though.