THE REASON WHY I AM WALKING TO QATAR
HELP TOWARDS REACHING THE TARGET BY DONATING. CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW
WHY AM I CONTINUING TO SUPPORT SHOUT 85258?
Please read the details below to understand why I have accepted the challenge from Mark Bonner the Cambridge United Fc Team Manager to walk the equivalent of London to Qatar being 3229 miles.
How SHOUT 85258 was formed
- Shout is the UK's first and only 24/7 text messaging support service for anyone struggling to cope and was launched publicly in May 2019; the service provides round the clock support from clinical supervisors and trained volunteers to ensure no one has to face their problems alone
- Shout was researched and developed with The Royal Foundation as a legacy of its Heads Together campaign and was set-up with a £2m grant from The Royal Foundation
- Shout 85258 is the first service from Mental Health Innovations; a digital charity improving the mental health of the UK population
- The funds raised will go towards providing discreet and confidential help for anyone who needs immediate support with their mental health. Shout 85258 help the children, young people and adults texting them with issues including suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression, relationships, abuse, bullying and self-harm
- £5 can help Shout 85258 have a life-saving conversation with someone in need of urgent support, any time of the day or night
- £10 can help someone in distress to access an hour of mental health support from a trained volunteer
- £250 can train a volunteer to take life-saving conversations with people needing immediate support
- Daily conversation numbers almost tripled during the Covid-19 pandemic and are continuing to rise
- In January 2020, Shout 85258 were taking around 750 conversations a day. This rose to 2,100 conversations a day in January 2022 and is continuing to grow – Shout 85258 are currently taking around 2,400 conversations every day
- To date, Shout has taken more than 1,000,000 conversations with 400,000 children, young people and adults who are anxious, stressed, depressed, suicidal or overwhelmed and who need immediate support
- Suicide (34%), depression (32%) and anxiety or stress (31%) are the main reasons people text Shout for support, closely followed by relationships (25%), loneliness (16%) and self-harm (14%)
- Around 35% of texters to Shout 85258 are school-aged children who are feeling overwhelmed and often suicidal, meaning Shout 85258 have provided in the moment support to an estimated one child in every secondary school classroom in the UK
- At a time when traditional mental health services are overwhelmed, Shout 85258 is improving access to digital mental health support and early intervention on a national scale:
- 74% of conversations take place outside the hours of 9am-5pm, when the majority of alternative mental health services are unavailable
- 43% of texters say it is the first time they have asked for help, largely due to the availability of the service round the clock, the anonymity of the service and finding it easier to text than to talk about their worries out loud
- From around 340,000 text conversations relating to suicide, Shout Volunteers have actioned 14,458 'active rescues'; this is when de-escalation is not possible and a texter is at imminent risk of suicide, so the emergency services are alerted
Please spread the word and encourage companies along with the public to donate.
If we can get 500 companies to donate just £100 we can help support thousands of people who are having to deal with challenging mental health issues.
Ian Darler B.E.M
