If your life is at risk right now?
If you feel like you might attempt suicide, or may have seriously harmed yourself, you need urgent medical help please:
- Call 999 for an ambulance
- Go straight to A&E, if you can
- Call your local crisis team – if you don’t already have their number, you can find an urgent mental health helpline on the NHS website
If you can’t do this by yourself, ask someone to help you.
Mental health emergencies are serious. You’re not wasting anyone’s time.
If you don’t want to call 999 and can keep yourself safe for a short while, but you still need urgent advice:
- Contact NHS 111 if you live in England
select the mental health option (2) - Contact your GP surgery and ask for an emergency appointment. Many GPs are now offering these remotely.
- Contact a local urgent mental health helpline
- You can also call the following:
Bracknell Adult Social Care Services
- Telephone: 01344 351500
- Out of Hours: Emergency Duty Team on 01344 351999
Slough Adult Social Care Services
- Office Hours Telephone: 01753 475111 (option 1) or
Windsor and Maidenhead Adult Social Care
- Telephone: 01628 683744 during normal office working hours.
- Outside office hours, please contact the Emergency Duty Team on 01344 786543
Reading Adult Social Care services
- Call Adult Social Care on 0118 937 3747.
- Out of hours emergency telephone: 01344 351 999
Wokingham Adult Social Care
- 9am – 5pm: 0118 974 6000
- Emergency out of hours: 0800 212 111
- Social care out of hours: 01344 351 999
West Berkshire
- Call Adult Social Care on 01635 503050
- Social care out of hours: 01344 351999
East Berkshire Safe Haven
The East Berkshire Safe Haven offers out-of-hours mental health support to anyone aged 18 and over.
You can contact them if you’re feeling distressed, overwhelmed, or that things are too much for you and your usual sources of mental health support are closed.
Berkshire West Breathing Space
Berkshire West Breathing Space is open for pre-booked appointments, opening times Monday to Thursday from 5 pm until 11pm. It’s hosted at Rupert Square in Reading and can be accessed by those who are living in Wokingham Borough, Reading and West Berkshire. Berkshire West Breathing Space – Together for Mental Wellbeing
If you need to talk right now
Whatever you’re going through, there are people you can talk to any time. You can:
- call Samaritans on 116 123 (UK-wide, always available)
- text SHOUT to 85258 (UK-wide, always available)
- The Mix – Essential Support for Under 25s.
If you’re experiencing any painful emotion or are in crisis, text 85258 (always available) - Papyrus (Prevention of Young Suicide) for children and young people under the age of 35 Call: 0800 068 4141 Text: 88247 (always available)
- Campaign Against Living Miserably 0800 58 58 58 (Open 5pm to midnight)
- Suicide Prevention UK 0800 689 5652 (Open 6pm to midnight)
- Boloh a Barnardo’s service which has webchat and telephone options, which provides advice, emotional support and therapeutic support to for Hong Kong BN(O) Nationals and Asylum Seekers. It offers practical support with meeting your needs, or the needs of your child e.g. food, devices, clothing. Many operators are multi-lingual and translators are available if required.
- Open Monday to Friday,10am – 8pm. Saturday 10am – 3pm.
- Switchboard – LGBTQ+ wellbeing support available via telephone, webchat and email. All operators are people from the LGBTQ+ community.
- Open every day, 10:00am to 10pm.
These services are for anyone who’s struggling.
They won’t judge you.
They’re free and they’re anonymous.
More mental health support
National Mind Helpline
Support line: 0300 102 1234
We’re open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except bank holidays).
Our support line is a safe space for you to talk about your mental health. Our advisors are trained to listen to you and help you find specialist support if you need it.
Talk to someone you trust
Let family or friends know what’s going on for you. They may be able to offer support and help keep you safe.
There’s no right or wrong way to talk about suicidal feelings – starting the conversation is what’s important.
Tips for coping right now
- Try not to think about the future – just focus on getting through today
- Stay away from drugs and alcohol
- Get yourself to a safe place, like a friend’s house
- Be around other people
- Do something you usually enjoy, such as spending time with a pet
Worried about someone else?
- If you’re worried about someone, try to get them to talk to you. Ask open-ended questions like: “How do you feel about…?”
- Don’t worry about having the answers. Just listening to what someone has to say and taking it seriously can be more helpful.
- See the Samaritans’ tips on how to start a difficult conversation.
Contains information from NHS Digital, licenced under the current version of the Open Government Licence