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Markyboy
@Markyboy if you ever need more volunteers please PM me. I’ve got a lot of experience volunteering with Hackney Winter Night Shelter, I’ve basically done every volunteer role there, and last few years I’ve been basically doing the food coordinating (planning meals and buying the ingredients) for 1/7 of the venues, as wel as a lot of the cooking.
I commit a lot of hours for about 2 months of the year but recently I’ve been thinking it’s not enough because as you say, the need is increasing, and I’d like to increase my volunteering commitment to match.
Back when I volunteered at Samaritans, the rise in those with mental health issues turning to Sams for support was really difficult for me to deal with. From about 22:00, a lot of people who previously had 24hr support had nobody to talk or turn to. Volunteers found it hard because we didn’t have specific mental health issue training, so we’d either end up listening for literally hours about either delusions or intensely detailed accounts of how fucked their lives are, or some volunteers sadly took to hanging up on them or being rude.
The cuts to services for those who really need help are something I just can’t understand or mentally cope with.