Irish Samaritans receives 800 texts/day from teenagers

Link:

MORE than 800 people contacted the Samaritans every day last year, according to the latest figures for the support service.

The support group said the number of young people using the texting services has been ‘phenomenal” and they have been forced to stop advertising it because they cannot cope with current demand. More than 85,000 teenagers sent messages to the mobile phone text service since it started in April.

Wow that sounds like a lot to me. Texting can be a lot easier than speaking — for a whole host of reasons. What a wicked concept. I’m pleased that someone in the Samaritans Ireland decided to implement the medium.

The only (slight) issue I can see is, unfortunately, the teenagers most probably have to pay to send their texts to the service — although I know that reverse-charged shortcodes have been muted for some time in the UK. Not sure on the status of this in Ireland.

However I’m delighted that it appears to be working well. That just goes to show: Prior to April (when the service was launched) there were conceivably 800 odd phone calls NOT being made each day by concerned teenagers because they did not like or feel comfortable with the voice medium.