Dublin Samaritans has launched a new corporate wellbeing programme to support businesses and their employees.

Entitled Learn 2 Listen (L2L), comprises a practical workshop that aims to help companies build their emotional-support toolkit, support colleagues who may not be coping and to listen more effectively.

The half-day programme has been developed by trained Dublin Samaritan volunteers to offer key employees the skills and tools needed to recognise the early warning signs of stress, increase awareness of mental health issues in the workplace and practise the key skill of ‘active listening'.

The trained volunteers deliver the workshop to small groups of employees. Topics covered in the workshop include understanding emotional health, the stress continuum, barriers to listening in the workplace, active listening tools and demonstrations.

The workshops are interactive and experiential, involving roleplay with trained Samaritans and colleagues. Participants will witness and experience ‘active listening’ and support techniques from volunteer demonstrations, and will get the opportunity to try these new skills in small, supportive breakout groups.

In Association with

Dublin Bus piloted the L2L project and An Post will be among the first to sign up for the wellbeing workshops, which are taking place in June.

Nicholas Nally, volunteer outreach director with Dublin Samaritans, said that the workshop is based on Samaritans’ extensive body of knowledge and experience in active listening, gained over the 50-year history of the Dublin branch.

“The objective of the workshops is to give managers an increased understanding of mental health support in the workplace and to give them the knowledge and tools to provide emotional support to colleagues,” Nally added.

Learn 2 Listen is offered online while restrictions are in place. Once it is safe to do so, Dublin Samaritans will deliver the training in-house.

“The workshops to date have been very well received by attendees,” said Nally. “The feedback we have received strongly indicates that the experience has helped them to better understand how to provide emotional support in their work context and has given them the confidence to apply these new techniques in their day to day working environments.”

Dublin Samaritan hopes to offer the ‘Learn 2 Listen’ workshops to corporate clients for a nominal fee to cover the costs of its helpline. The volunteers who deliver the course do so on a voluntary (unpaid) basis and all proceeds from the workshops go towards running costs of the free phone service throughout Ireland.

Photo: (l-r) Former Irish rally driver Rosemary Smith, Louisa Murray, volunteer with Dublin Samaritans and head of HR and Development, Phil Donohue of Dublin Bus