Samaritans to offer support at Jersey Live

The Samaritans will be at Jersey Live again this year to support people at the festival

The Samaritans will offer support to people at the Jersey Live music festival on Saturday and Sunday.

The charity offered help for the first time at the festival last year.

Boyd Bennie, the director of the Jersey Samaritans, said it had made contact with a wide range of people at the festival in 2010.

The Samaritans Festival Branch in the UK works at events such as Glastonbury, T in the Park, and the Reading and Leeds festivals.

Mr Bennie said: "Young men in particular are a group that can be hard to reach but are among those at highest risk of suicide."

'Feeling low'

He said while festivals were about people enjoying themselves, at any event where people were having a good time, there were inevitably some who were not.

He said: "Sometimes people arrive hoping to forget about their problems, but the sight of so many happy people can make them feel even worse.

"Others can arrive feeling relatively OK, but something happens during the event which leaves them feeling low.

"This is where the Samaritans fit in: we provide a free, non-judgemental, face to face listening service throughout the event.

"People can discuss anything that's getting them down, no matter how serious or how trivial and the conversation is completely confidential.

"Whether people feel suicidal or not they are given the opportunity to talk through whatever is on their mind with a volunteer who is trained to listen."