@Samaritans - don't lose heart over #SamaritansRadar

Written By Sanjay Joshi


Anyone following #SamaritansRadar on twitter over the last few days will see that it has provoked varied reactions, some quite strong. In this article, I will present some arguments for and against the radar app; I won't come to a conclusion as to whether Radar is a good thing or not. I will conclude that Samaritans should cling to its heritage of innovation, even being an innovator brings risks; I would be sad if charities felt unable to innovate, even if innovation involves risking getting things wrong.

Disclaimer: I am, in fact, a Samaritan. Therefore in this post I will probably be slightly less opinionated than I might be if it were another organisation. Some technical issues with my computer meant that in the end I had no involvement in the development of the radar app, and didn't know how it worked until its release. I am not in any way writing in an official Samaritans capacity.


Background

Samaritans describes Radar as follows
Samaritans Radar will flag potentially worrying tweets that you may have missed, giving you the option to reach out to those who may need your support. 

The twitter response includes some positive comment:

From what I see, the more vocal commentary in the twittersphere seems to come from those opposed to the app:


There's *several* more negative tweets, and for those who are interested, I have gathered together the ones I found most interesting and put them at the bottom of this post.

So is radar as bad as it's made out to be?

In the 21st century, it seems that the topics you can't discuss at the dinner table are religion, politics and data protection. There are complexities here that I won't fully address in this post. @Breakologist does make a very interesting point:

Although arguably by creating an app that is intended for those who are suicidal or have mental health issues, it focuses attention on them.

Is the opinion expressed representative of how most people will feel over time?

Good old @Breakologist has another interesting comment:


I personally suspect that nobody is trying to get "twitter famous", although I wonder whether twitter focuses the mind into saying something pithy and interesting, and therefore polarises opinion. At the time of writing, there are 608 people who have signed a petition against the app.

Being an innovator involves taking risk

Samaritans has a history of innovation, including being the first telephone helpline in the world, the first emotional support email service in the world and many other firsts. Offering non-judgemental support to the suicidal at a time when suicide was still illegal was a risk, and if it hadn't been taken, the world would have been a worse place. While there are several vocal objectors to the app, most seem to continue to view the Samaritans' service positively:


Conclusion: Don't lose heart, @Samaritans

Will history judge the Radar app a total flop? Or will it judge Radar a life-changing innovation with a few teething problems around comms? I don't know. But either way innovation is what Samaritans what is today. I would encourage the organisation to do the following:
- in the short term, please, for the love of god, respond to this
- in the medium term, be open about failures and learning points
- in the long term, don't stop innovating and taking risks


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Some more examples of tweets opposed to Radar:








And some more criticism from the blogosphere:
http://susanhall.shoesforindustry.net/articles/weary-stale-flat-unprofitable-and-in-breach-of-the-data-protection-act
http://purplepersuasion.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/me-sam-and-his-magical-radar-booth/
http://jonmendel.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/samaritans-radar-questions-from-a-research-ethics-point-of-view-post-1-of-2/


Sanjay Joshi
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