Befriending: The American Samaritans

This book relates the founding in America, and evaluates the effectiveness of, a branch of the worldwide organization of volunteers known as the Samaritans, committed to the prevention of suicide through the simple means of “listening therapy.” Great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, Monica Dickens was best known in England as a novelist; in America, as the founder of the U.S. Samaritans. Today Samaritans are in every large city of the country. Volunteers work twenty-four hours a day, answering telephones or meeting troubled people, to try to give them, in nonjudgmental ways, the help they need to get their lives back in order.

This book relates the founding in America, and evaluates the effectiveness of, a branch of the worldwide organization of volunteers known as the Samaritans, committed to the prevention of suicide through the simple means of “listening therapy.” Great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, Monica Dickens was best known in England as a novelist; in America, as the founder of the U.S. Samaritans. Today Samaritans are in every large city of the country. Volunteers work twenty-four hours a day, answering telephones or meeting troubled people, to try to give them, in nonjudgmental ways, the help they need to get their lives back in order.

Booknews

A memoir of the suicide prevention organization called the Samaritans whose brand of "listening therapy" extends to every major city in the US. Dickens (novelist and founder of the US Samaritans) gives an engaging picture of the volunteer hotline that works around the clock, and the early resistance to it by psychiatrists and government bureaucrats. The volume also includes an introduction and epilogue by Carlton Jackson (history, Western Kentucky U.). Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)