Call STAMMA: celebrating Helplines Awareness Day

Image

Happy Helplines Awareness Day! Designated by Helplines Partnership, every 23rd February is a day to celebrate the unseen but vital work helplines provide through difficult times. One of the brilliant STAMMA volunteers has kindly written this piece.

Volunteering on the STAMMA helpline allows me to pass on my experiences to help parents, children, teenagers and adults seeking help and emotional support with stammering. It is challenging, sometimes very emotional for both caller and myself, but incredibly rewarding.

STAMMA has three help channels which are here for anyone affected by stammering. We've got the telephone service — call free on 0808 802 0002 — the webchat, and email service (help@stamma.org). Use whichever you feel comfortable with. We get plenty of repeat callers who switch between channels and use whichever feels right for them on that day.

The person who talked to me was AMAZING!!! I felt heard and helped. After our conversation, I felt better and felt like I could handle the world!

Range of support calls

Here's a flavour of the sort of conversations we have:

• The middle-aged man stressed by covering up his stammer so that no-one realises.
• The parent whose 3-year-old is suddenly struggling to get words out.
• The student wanting to connect with others who stammer in their university town.
• The young manager who just gave a presentation in their new job, chuffed they felt able to tell the audience about their stammer.
• The person in their seventies who'd never before held a conversation about their stammer.
• The woman wanting to 'warm up' her speech before starting another day at work.
• The young employee telling us about being ridiculed in a meeting.
• The parent asking if there's support for their daughter in GCSE language exams.
• A job-hunter calling to practise interview skills.
• Parents and adults enquiring about therapies and courses.

The person I chatted with about my son was very polite and courteous. They put me at ease and provided me with some valuable tips. Thank you so much!

Here if you just want to chat

You don't need to have a particular question — maybe you just want to chat with someone who won't judge you on your stammer or how you're choosing to live with it. 

Contact us if you're feeling isolated or just want to let off steam. Conversations often lead to contacts with the wider stammering community — perhaps exploring links to local groups or an online support network.

We 'get' it

Rest assured that our services are staffed by volunteers who stammer or have a close connection to it. I hope this gives the caller confidence that they are speaking to someone who understands what they're going through, either in their own lives or with their children. 

We know what it's like. We understand the concerns that others might have no clue about.

Your team member was very informative and offered some good solutions.

Open to everyone

Whatever your connection to stammering, our helpline's here. It isn't just people who stammer or parents who contact us. A big shout-out to those teachers who've got in touch to make sure they're saying the right thing to a child who stammers, or to find out how to build a stammer-supportive school environment.

Also, to employers who ask us how best to support job candidates who stammer in interviews, or colleagues in the workplace.

Don't hesitate to call us. We're open Monday-Thursday from 10am-2pm and 4pm-8pm. Would you like to volunteer on the STAMMA helpline? If so, we've got a couple of shifts free. Find out more and apply now.

Whatever stammering means to you, we're here.