REACH OUT
Amy Lucas describes how Reach Out , Forward ’ s live chat service , has grown from an emergency pandemic response into a valuable safety net
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Nearly a year ago , on 1 May 2020 , Forward launched its first ever livechat service : Reach Out . Plans for such a service had been in the works for a while , but accelerated dramatically when the pandemic hit . We were mindful that a lot of vulnerable people – both our current service users and those not getting help but struggling – would be looking for sources of support at what was an incredible lonely and anxious time , and Reach Out seemed to be one small way in which we could help . It took a while for people to learn about the service , but – with funding from the National Lottery ’ s Coronavirus Community Support Fund and J Leon Group to help with marketing and promotion – it has become increasingly popular , and we ’ ve seen a 500 per cent growth in call volume since November .
Although Forward delivers a range of different types of support , including employment and housing , we ’ re most well-known for our drug and alcohol services , so we thought the vast majority of people
contacting us would be doing so to chat about issues with substances . And , to begin with , they did .
However , in the course of the last year we ’ ve had an increasing amount of people getting in touch due to mental health issues , and these now form a significant proportion of the calls we receive – 60 per cent in total . Lockdown has , of course , been a driver in people wanting to reach out , but the biggest thing we ’ ve noticed is people getting in touch because they had no-one to talk to . We ’ re helping people who are really quite lost and , although that ’ s a big responsibility , it ’ s also a huge privilege to know that we can be a source of support and comfort .
Reach Out is run by a team of Forward staff and volunteers who have given up time from their normal roles to become ‘ agents ’ for the service . One of the amazing things is that it ’ s not just callers who have benefitted from the service , but our staff – many have told us that , in addition to the satisfaction of knowing they ’ re helping people , volunteering for Reach Out has helped them to
THE STATS
• 60 per cent of calls to Reach Out are related to mental health
• 87 per cent of callers are simply looking for someone to talk to
• Since the service opened it ’ s received 2,382 calls – 517 in the first five months and 1,865 in the following five months , a growth of 360 per cent .
• 27 per cent of calls in February 2021 were from people who had never engaged with The Forward Trust but were looking for advice and help hone their skills and knowledge base . This has been particularly important for frontline staff whose interaction with clients has been severely limited in the past year . For everyone involved – whether the people in touch or the amazing team at the end of the line – Reach Out has served an incredibly important purpose .
As one agent , Samantha Daly , Connections family support worker at HMP Standford Hill , says , working on the service has been ‘ incredibly rewarding – the team as a whole is very supportive and I feel very lucky to be a part of it . We all have important skills that contribute toward creating this very unique , virtual support system that is Reach Out . I have supported people with a wide range of issues – from mental health to worries about a loved one , from drug and alcohol advice and support to working in partnership with other organisations and agencies who want to refer clients . Reach Out has helped me embed key skills and enhance my empathic listening and responses to real life situations , and I ’ m truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to do so .’
We ’ ve been really lucky to have had some fantastic support from other organisations in the field who were experienced in running an online live-chat service , particularly We Are With You , who have been an invaluable source of advice and guidance , and Change Grow Live . It ’ s been a wonderful example of how we in the sector can work together to achieve great things , and we ’ re really excited about the future !
Amy Lucas is Reach Out service coordinator at The Forward Trust
‘ I was just getting to the point where I was about to lose it emotionally at work and needed to do something about it – thank you ’
‘ Honestly I cannot thank you enough . I can ’ t describe it but I feel so much better just talking this out with you today ’
‘ I prefer this kind of set up – talking on the phone about this . In fact , just saying the words out loud is a struggle . It ’ s much easier for me to write them down ’
‘ I ’ m so grateful for this information , I really didn ’ t know what steps I should take . That little chat means a lot , thank you so much ’
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