BEFRIENDERS WORLDWIDE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Background
Every year, almost one million people die from suicide globally; a mortality rate of 16 per 100,000 people or one death every 40 seconds. In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide, in some countries, is now among the three leading causes of death in the 15-44 age group and the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group. Furthermore, these figures do not include suicide attempts, which are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide.
Who are we?
Befrienders Worldwide ('BW') is a global network of 169 emotional support centres (in 29 countries).We were established in 1974 by Chad Varah, who founded Samaritans in 1953. We are a UK registered charitable organisation administered by a Board of Trustees.
Our vision is to contribute to a society where suicide is understood both locally and globally, leading to fewer deaths by suicide.
What do we do?
Often when a person feels stressed, in despair, depressed, anxious or suicidal they also feel a lack of control. Our centres provide an invaluable source of emotional support in these moments of crisis and they provide an open space for those in distress to talk and be heard.
Our centres and volunteers operate with specific guiding principles:
· Provide a 24-hour service, planning and focusing on times of peak demand.
· Offer callers contact with the centres; via telephone, SMS messaging, face to face, outreach, partnerships and the internet.
· Respect total confidentiality
· All centres are non-political and non-sectarian and volunteers do not seek to impose their personal own convictions on anyone.
· Callers can be invited to consider seeking professional help in addition to the emotional support offered by the Centre.
· Centres are mainly resourced by volunteers.
· Volunteers are selected, trained, mentored and supported by other experienced volunteers
· Relevant professional experts are available for consultation and referral
· Centres are mutually supportive and committed to sharing data with other member centres
· Centres participate in global BW network initiatives
The BW Trustees plus a small group of regional volunteers and one central staff member work to monitor and support the adherence by our centres to these guiding principles.
Impact of the BW network
A BW centre can have a remarkable effect on decreasing suicide. Two examples of this are the Sri Lanka outreach programme and the use of instant messaging in Brazil.
It is estimated that in rural Sri Lanka 71% of suicide deaths involve pesticides. Sri Lanka Sumithrayo, a BW centre, trialled a project that introduced lock boxes for pesticides among a number of rural households. These boxes had a message on them about how to deal with bad feelings. There is evidence indicating that the suicide rate reduced following this activity., This rural outreach programme has been recognised by the World Health Organisation as a unique project for significantly impacting on rural suicide rates in Sri Lanka.
In 2010, our Brazilian centres devised a new way to provide support to those in distress through instant messaging. This initiative has encouraged centres in other locations in the BW network, including the US (Boston) and Serbia to also reach out in a similar manner.
This demonstrates the role of BW in learning from such outstanding projects and enabling other centres to replicate them. BW shares these innovative and excellent systems across the international network reaching more vulnerable people every day.
The value of our network can be seen in an increased number of people contacting our centres worldwide. In 2009 700,000 contacts people contacted the BW network and in 2013 this has risen to approximately 2 million contacts.