The occurrence of suicides of people in prison has long been a cause for concern. Samaritans and the Prison Service are continuing to work in close partnership to develop new initiatives to address this worrying trend.

Cheltenham & District Branch works with HMP Long Lartin, a high-security men’s prison near Evesham. Listeners are prisoners themselves, trained by Samaritans to offer emotional support to fellow inmates in distress, in just the same way that Samaritans support the wider community.

A team of trained Samaritan volunteers from our branch visits Long Lartin each week to meet the Listeners and hear about their calls. We offer support, guidance and training. About once a year we select and train new prisoners who are keen to become Listeners. The work the Listeners do can be very challenging and we often feel that they have a harder job than ours in the branch – obviously they are in prison themselves, with their own issues, and they have the added difficulty that they often know their callers. We are immensely grateful to them for being prepared to put themselves in the position of being a Listener, which is sometimes difficult, but can also be very rewarding.