Confidentiality

When the caller phones up Samaritans, we cannot and have no ability at the branch level to trace the telephone call. It comes in completely anonymous. And also on your phone bill, it won't say, "You have phoned Samaritans." It doesn't list the telephone number. So if you leave it lying around and you think, "Gosh, my partner's going to see it." No, there was nothing to do with that. People can phone us for all sorts of different reasons. An example of a follow-up call that we do offer would be supposing you had had a really bad cough and you were worried about it, and you had been to the doctors and the doctor had said, "Right, I want you to go to the hospital." And you have got the panic on, you're thinking, "Is this cancer? Is this whatever it is... " You know, whatever it goes. You could phone us and we would listen and we would open with a conversation. "Okay, when are you going to the doctors? Friday? Right, how would you like it if I arranged for a Samaritan to phone you up to say, "How did you get on? How are you feeling? Have you ex... Have you told anybody else? Is it good news, is it bad news?"

And if the... "Well, I haven't got my results, they've not told me." "Okay. Well, do you want us to give you a ring tomorrow? Do you want a ring on Sunday? Do you want us to ring you on Monday?" We will support that person for as long as they need the support until that person, or we agree, that it doesn't need to be a daily call. It could be a fortnightly call, or... "Okay. Well, you phone us when you are feeling down. We are always here. We will always listen." And that's how it works.