A service run by Samaritans provides mental health support via text message.
This is no longer true. Although Samaritans did previously have a text service, this was shut down in February 2020. Mental health support by text is available from another charity, SHOUT.
A series of posts on Facebook claim that anyone who is feeling depressed or suicidal can text a number and receive a response from a crisis counsellor through a service run by the charity Samaritans.
Many of these posts encourage other Facebook users to copy and paste the text number to spread it more widely. However, this information is out of date and no longer correct.
Samaritans confirmed to Full Fact that although the text number shared in the post was previously used by the charity, it was retired in February 2020 and is no longer in operation.
The charity has also tweeted to confirm it does not operate a text service, adding: “We realise this is with good intentions and we appreciate everyone signposting to our service, but we want to make sure that the people who need us are getting through to us on the right number.”
We have previously written about posts promoting this out-of-date Samaritans service last year.
People who do want to speak to Samaritans can call 116 123 for free any time of the day or night. They can also be reached via email, through the post or in person by visiting your local branch.
Although the Samaritans no longer operate such a service, text-based mental health support is available from the charity SHOUT, which operates a free, confidential 24/7 service, by texting 85258.
Image courtesy of Freestocks
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because Samaritans no longer operates a text-based support service.
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