From time to time we may have to use the information collected about you when you contact us to make decisions about limiting access to our services.
Why have I been restricted from calling?
This is because you have been using our helpline or email services in a way that goes beyond our service boundaries.
We want as many people as possible to get support when they need it. To make sure this happens we need to help some people in how they use our services.
There are 3 reasons why your access to our services has been restricted:
- If you spend 20 hours or more within a rolling 30-day period talking to volunteers.
- If you make 100 calls or more within a rolling 30-day period.
- Zero Tolerance - Concerns are raised by our volunteers about the content of your calls being inappropriate or abusive repeatedly.
Frequent calls
If when calling the helpline, you hear a recorded message “we would like to talk to you about how you use our service”, you will be asked to contact the Caller Support Team by leaving a voicemail with your name, contact number, and if we can leave you a voice message or not.
A Caller Support Officer will call you back to talk to you about:
- how you use our services,
- why you might be having to use our services more
- suggest other places where you can get help that will better meet your needs
- if a support plan can be agreed so you still get to talk to our volunteers.
If you do not call the Caller Support team, or we cannot get to speak with you, or after our conversation, we feel the restriction should remain in place then your number will remain restricted for 30 days.
Zero tolerance
Our volunteers are here to help you and to make sure they can do that we cannot tolerate:
- Threatening calls
- Sexually abusive / manipulative calls
- Targeted, personally abusive calls
If you make these type of calls you will hear a recorded message:
“Samaritans is not taking calls from this number for a period of 90 days because concerns have been raised about the content of the calls within a 30 day period. If, after 90 days further reports of inappropriate content are made, the service will be withdrawn from this number for a period of 12 months.”