LAST month, the government announced that it was awarding the Samaritans £1.8 million so that it could continue its free 24/7 telephone helpline to the millions of people who make contact each year for a further four years. The Samaritans number doesn’t appear on phone bills, so those who call 116123 at times of crisis or deep emotional distress can be reassured knowing their call will be both free and confidential.

It sounds like a great deal of money but it doesn’t go far. In Salisbury we have two volunteers on duty at any one time. Last year we dealt with over 19,000 telephone contacts of which 45 each day were labelled ‘significant’ , where suicidal thoughts and feelings were discussed and explored including, in some instances, the caller’s plan to end their life. Our volunteers also responded to more than 1,200 emails and over 3,000 text messages. It is estimated that the organisation is contacted every six seconds. The cost to keep Salisbury branch open and available to our callers last year? £70,000.

Many people who decide to contact us are experiencing anxiety about the future and, for many, this anxiety becomes more acute when lack of money means they cannot afford anything but essentials. These anxieties can build to such a point that relationships break down, families break-up and homes are lost. And when that happens, people who can no longer cope can become emotionally ‘lost’ and go missing.

In Wiltshire the police deal with 10 reports of missing people a day. Most are found and return home within in 24 hours, but others are more vulnerable. People rarely go missing without a reason; it’s often the symptom of a wider problem in someone's life

On October 1, a partnership between the Samaritans and the charity Missing People launched a new initiative to reach out to people who have been officially reported as missing. They will receive the following text message from ‘Missing People’ who would have been given their contact details: ‘For free confidential support from the charity Missing People call/text 116000. For support from Samaritans call 116123. Samaritans will try calling you later.’

Samaritans volunteers, given only the missing person’s contact details and name, will make an initial call. If there is no response a voicemail message is left and a second attempt to contact the missing person will be made two hours later. If there’s no response to the second call, we’ll make a third attempt after four hours; but with no response to the third call, we can’t take any further action.

Yes, £1.8m is a large amount of money but it helps our volunteers to be available to anyone in distress, at any time, at no charge and now to be able to reach out to those who have gone missing. Who knows? It could save their life.