Nearly three million calls were made to Samaritans Ireland over the past five years.
The mental health charity’s suicide helpline received more than 500,000 calls in the last year along with almost 46,000 text replies and 5,3000 emails.
Overall Samaritans volunteers took a total of 2.9 million calls on the freephone helpline which started five years ago.
Out of those who contacted the charity, one third struggled with mental illness and 30% said they suffered from isolation and loneliness, a report from the Samaritans has revealed.
And 376,500 listening hours were given on phone from March 2014 to March 2019.
Watch: Two Irish lads are doing a massive cycle to raise funds for mental health charities in Ireland and AustraliaAlmost two in 10 callers admitted to having suicidal thoughts.
The news comes as six major telecom providers- BT Ireland, eir, Sky Ireland, Three Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland and Vodafone Ireland have announced that they will extend their partnership and support the free helpline until 2024.
Cindy O’Shea, regional director of Samaritans Ireland, said: “Samaritans has been supporting people in Ireland since 1961, but the introduction of freephone made a huge impact.
"It is amazing that in that time volunteers have answered almost three million telephone calls, as well as given support to thousands more by text, email and face to face in branches, in communities, at festivals and in prisons.
“We are thrilled that our largest telecommunications companies have shown their faith and confidence in us to continue delivering this service to their customers and others who need us in their darkest hours.”
