Support Services

Samaritans offer support, at any time of the day, to anyone in the UK and Ireland who is in distress, including those who may feel suicidal.

You can contact Samaritans by phone, email, SMS, letter or face to face by visiting one of our 202 branches.

Telephoning Samaritans costs the price of a local call, or you can email for free. SMS messages are charged at your standard network tariff. Most branches offer a drop-in service for anyone who wants to speak to a Samaritans volunteer face to face, and although you don’t need to make an appointment, it’s always best to ring the branch beforehand to make sure they’re free.

Why contact Samaritans?

Samaritans volunteers listen in confidence to anyone in any type of emotional distress, without judging or telling people what to do.

Samaritans doesn’t offer advice, but by encouraging people who contact us to talk about their feelings we are able to help them explore all the options they have. Samaritans believes that given the time and space to work problems or difficulties through in confidence, people can find an inner strength and perspective, which lets them find their own way forward. 

Our volunteers are all carefully trained so that they do not try and impose any of their own beliefs to influence you, and do not presume to be in a position to tell the caller what to do, because what works for one person might not work for you.

The service is entirely confidential. You do not have to use your real name, nor give us any personal details, if that helps you to feel comfortable. No telephone in a branch of Samaritans can display the incoming call number, and if you choose to send an email your email address is hidden from the volunteer. No calls are recorded.

Find out more about the nature of our service

"There's very few places you can go to in the world where you can pick up a telephone and another human being, no matter why they're doing it, will listen to you unconditionally. If you want to pour out in a phonecall, they will listen for hours."

Samaritans caller

Find out what happens when you contact us