Taxi drivers are known as good listeners. As well as making small talk about football, traffic and the weather, they can be lifesavers by listening to passengers offload problems they won’t share with friends or family.
Hampshire driver Kenton realised the unique position taxi drivers are in and has undergone training with the Samaritans to help make a difference to passengers who are struggling with their mental health.
As part of the Talk More Than Football scheme, he is offering free rides and a chat, hoping it will make a difference, especially to men who are less likely to reveal their struggles. And because it takes place in his black cab – which has public-hire insurance and can be hailed in the street or at a taxi rank – people simply assume it is just another fare.
BBC reporter Jono Holmes joined Kenton in his cab in Farnborough to find out about the impact the scheme is having.
Listening
Public hire taxi driver Kenton told the BBC that his training helped him become an even better listener and to ask open questions which encourage passengers to expand on their struggles and experiences.
He said: “Everyone wants to feel that they are being strong because people around you expect you to be strong. They don’t want you to be this person that’s just falling by the wayside.
“We are all suffering from grief or whatever it might be. You don’t want to put the burden on other people because you think that other people have got their own things they are dealing with and why would they want to listen to you? Someone is always there to listen to you.”
He said health is one of the main issues discussed in his cab.
He said: “Sometimes I get people in the cab and they look like they are really struggling. They have had cancer and they are dealing with that trying to process all of that. They don’t know whether to say something to friends with the fact that they might start being treated differently so they are holding that and bottling that up.”
Opening up
Kenton also explained that his training and experience show that men are far less likely to express their feelings and are more likely to bottle things up with figures showing that 42% of football fans would rather open up to a taxi driver than friends.
Kenton said: “As a guy, why don’t you open up? One of the things a particular gentleman said to me was ‘I don’t want to seem to be weak’. That’s astonishing that you can talk to a lot of your friends and sit in the pub and talk football and whether that was offside, but you won’t actually breach the fact that you are feeling really down and someone asks the question ‘talk to me, tell me what’s going on’.
“I think it’s the stigma that you have to be big and strong. We had two young lads, one was keen to get in, the other was less keen, but he was the one that was actually talking more. There was a break-up with his girlfriend and his friend was gobsmacked and said ‘I talk to you every day and I knew nothing about this’.
“We all like to talk about football, about various different things, but sometimes we avoid talking about what’s going on.
“A lot more people like opening up to taxi drivers. They know the conversation they are going to have one it’s not going to go anywhere else, it’s a very, very safe space and we can dig a little bit deeper. Even if it’s just a 10-minute journey, it’s nice for someone to be able to air their troubles.”
Listening to someone who is struggling with their mental health might seem simple, but it can make a huge difference. Helping them air their problems can make people realise they are not alone and can help them see things differently.
The Talk More Than Football scheme is well worth signing up for and could even help taxi drivers save lives by simply doing what comes naturally to them.
