Samaritans Ireland is marking ten years since the introduction of its freephone number for people seeking help from the charity.
Around 700,000 hours of support have been offered by volunteers who have answered more than five million calls in that time.
While the charity has been supporting people in Ireland for more than 50 years, the introduction of freephone in 2014 was a major milestone.
It has announced that six major telecoms providers have extended their partnership to cover the cost of calls for another five years.
Separately, Samaritans Ireland has published its Impact Report for 2023, which shows that more than 400,000 calls and emails for help were answered last year.
Some 20,000 were from prisoners and 150 calls were from overseas.
Volunteers spent, on average, almost 23 minutes on the phone to each caller who needed emotional support.
Mental health/illness, loneliness/isolation, family issues and relationship problems remained the most common concerns callers cited.
While the number of calls to the helpline spiked during Covid, they have balanced again.
However, Executive Director of the charity Sarah O'Toole has said the Samaritans volunteers are always there for people when they need it.
She said: "Oftentimes people are going through periods of emotional distress or anxiety.
"We really want people to talk to us before something like that becomes a bigger problem... talking is only so good when the someone there to listen, and that's what Samaritans do."
People who contact the charity, sometimes do so more than once.
"We know people reach out to us maybe once in their life, some people may reach out a few times or come back to us some years later when they still need that support," she added.
Nicola Clare is among those who has contacted the 116 123 helpline in the past.
At 30-years of age her life changed when she got badly injured with a prolapsed disc while training for the Dublin Marathon.
"I was out of work. My social life stopped. My sport stopped, everything stopped, and within seven weeks of that, my mood had gone into a really bad low and when that dropped, then everything kind of escalated," she said.
Ms Clare went from being busy and cheerful to battling with self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
She said: "I was like, what am I going to do? And I saw that you could e-mail the Samaritans.
"So I started typing and typing and typing and typing. I didn't even know if I was going to hit send, but I hit send and then a little while later, there was a response and it was humane and warm and full of compassion.
"I wasn't a monster anymore. It was really powerful just to get that."
She also rang the helpline. The first time was in the middle of the night when her mind was racing and she could not settle.
"It was like there was humanity at the end of the phone. It was so powerful. It was just something simple like 'hello, Samaritans, how can I help?'
"But when you feel so alone in the middle and the darkness of the night, just the power of that, it was phenomenal."
Nicola did not speak on the phone that night, it was enough for her to know that she was not alone in that moment.
"There's no labels, there's no diagnosis. There's no right and wrong. There's no judgement. It's one person talking to another person, and whatever happens within that exchange is bigger than the two people, it's really a lifeline," she said.
Freephone Samaritans on 116 123 (the number is free from any landline and mobile and does not show up on bills). Email: jo@samaritans.ie
