Galway Samaritans are to launch a new text mobile phone support service which they hope will help reach out to young people.
It is aimed at attracting younger people who are having suicidal thoughts to make contact with them. An e-mail service has proved very popular and in the past six months Galway Samaritans responded to over 270 e-mails.
"We are always conscious in Galway that we're not relating to young people," said the director of Galway Samaritans, Gerard O'Connor.
A pilot text scheme is already operating in the Dublin and Newbridge area. The text service is hoped to be available in Galway in the next year once a manageable and safe system of operation has been decided.
"Everything said to the Samaritans is confidential and we aim to respond to any contact made. We need to make sure that we can reply to a large number of text messages and ensure the confidentiality of the message also," added Gerard O'Connor.
The number of calls made to Galway Samaritans increased again last year and was up by a further 8 per cent on 2005.