If you’re a veteran, serving member of the Armed Forces or a family member and need someone to talk to, we listen and won’t judge or tell you what to do. Call us free, any time, on 0808 175 3075.
Our dedicated helpline provides a safe and non-judgemental space for people who have served in the Armed Forces to talk about their experiences.
Call us any time, day or night
A dedicated emotional wellbeing support helpline for veterans and the wider military community which you can call from any phone for free.
Write us an email
Sometimes writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you understand them better. Please note, it may take several days to get a response by email, and it may not be an Armed Forces awareness-trained volunteer who replies.
Samaritans Veterans App
Register or sign in to Samaritans Veterans via your desktop
Samaritans Veterans is a free app that can provide you with emotional support after your career in the Armed Forces.
Write us a letter
Write to us at Freepost SAMARITANS LETTERS
Sometimes writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you better understand them. You can explain your situation in as much detail as you feel comfortable with, and we’ll aim to reply within 7 days. Please note, it may not be an Armed Forces awareness-trained volunteer who replies.
What happens when you call us?
An Armed Forces awareness-trained volunteer will answer
If you phone us, we will answer with something like "Samaritans, can I help you?"
You talk, we listen
We listen to you and help you talk through your concerns, worries and troubles
We will give you space to be yourself
We'll focus on your thoughts and feelings and may ask questions to help you explore how you feel
We won't tell you what you should do
We won't make decisions for you, our advice or opinions are not important for the call
More about our Listening Service
Is contacting you free?
Yes.
On the phone
This number is free to call from both landlines and mobiles, including pay-as-you-go mobiles. You do not need to have any credit or call allowance on your plan to call 0808 175 3075.
Via email
Emailing us on [email protected] is free.
In person
Visiting us face-to-face in your local branch is free.
By letter
Writing to us is free so you don’t need to add a stamp to your letter. Just write ‘Freepost SAMARITANS LETTERS’ on your envelope and your letter will be delivered to us.
Is the service confidential?
Yes, except for in certain situations where our safeguarding policy means we may tell someone, for example, by calling an ambulance. Read more about when we do this.
On the phone
When you call Samaritans, your number is not displayed to our volunteer. The phones we use don’t have caller display information on them.
We might ask your name, because it’s a natural question to ask in a conversation, or because of something you have said to us, but you don’t have to tell us if you prefer not to.
The number also won’t come up on your phone bill.
Via email
If you've emailed us, your email address will not be shown to the volunteer.
In person
You don’t have to tell us your name if you don’t want to. In the unlikely event that you see the Samaritan volunteer that you spoke to later on the street, the Samaritans volunteer will not acknowledge you, unless you do so first. This is to respect your privacy and the confidentiality of your visit, unless you wish to recognise it.
By letter
We will need your name and address to reply, but to maintain confidentiality, your letter will be shredded once we have sent you our response.
How quickly will you respond?
On the phone
When you call us on 0808 175 3075, you will be put through to an Armed Forces awareness-trained volunteer at one of our branches and locations across the UK.
We aim for everyone to get through to someone straight away, but sometimes this is not always possible as it depends on the number of volunteers we have on the phones at that time.
If the line is too busy, your call may be routed to our core helpline service (116 123) where a non-Armed Forces awareness-trained volunteer will answer. This is nothing to worry about, but if you only want to speak to an Armed Forces awareness-trained volunteer and your call is not urgent, you can hang up and call 0808 175 3075 again.
Via email
When you email us at [email protected], it may take several days to get a response
In person
You can check our branches opening times here. It can be helpful to call ahead and arrange a time to come in.
By letter
When you write us a letter we aim to respond within 7 days.
What can I speak to you about?
People contact us with all sorts of concerns and what might be a small issue to you may be huge to someone else.
You could be going through something new or have been struggling to cope for some time, either way, we're here if you feel you need some extra support.
If what’s getting to you isn’t on this list, please still get in touch.
Common reasons people contact us are:
- relationship and family problems
- loss, including loss of a friend or a family member through bereavement
- financial worries
- job-related stress
- college or study-related stress
- loneliness and isolation
- depression
- painful and/or disabling physical illness
- heavy use of or dependency on alcohol or other drugs
- thoughts of suicide
We won’t make decisions for you, and we'll support the decisions you make.
You are the expert on your own life. Our advice or opinions are not important.
If you want advice, we may be able to give you contact details for organisations that specialise in helping with specific problems and situations.
Support Plan
Volunteers are trained to recognise if someone may benefit from a short period of assigned support, this is where a small group of volunteers will call at agreed times to provide support to someone who is struggling with having to keep going over the same information during a call. If a volunteer believes you may benefit from a period of assigned support, they will talk to you about their concerns and seek your permission to pass your details to the Caller Support team, who will then contact you to talk about what support we can put in place to help you whilst you are struggling and finding things so difficult.
The support plan is there to help you, so we would encourage you to help create the plan with us as it is important that you are comfortable with the information included in it, we only need information that you feel will be useful for us to know when we are making a call to you. Ultimately, we want you to be able to contact the helpline when you need emotional support, so normally a support plan will only last for roughly 12 –16 weeks. However, the Caller Support team will talk to you about how this will happen and agree an end date with you as we want you to be ready for when the plan finishes.
Is this service for me?
Are Samaritans religious?
We’re not religious. The link between our name and any religious text is completely coincidental.
Our listeners will never impose any personal attitudes or beliefs on you.
My military training makes it difficult for me to talk about my experiences, can I still call even if I might not say much?
Yes, you can talk as much or as little as you want to – and do it in your own time. You don’t need to talk about anything you don’t want to, we won’t ever pressure you, but we can help you to explore whatever you do mention if you’re comfortable doing so.
What if I'm d/Deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech impediment?
Callers who are d/Deaf or who have hearing or speech impediments can contact us for support by email by using [email protected] or by using the Next Generation Text (NGT) service.
Next Generation Text (NGT) is not specific to Samaritans and can be used on any telephone number. You can contact Samaritans in this way using 0330 094 5717. For clarity, this service doesn’t work with 0808 175 3075. Please note that when using NGT, you will be subject to different rules of confidentiality.
Read more about what to expect when you talk to us.
What if I’m under 18?
You can still get in touch with us. We’re here for you, whatever your age. Our first responsibility is to you, not your parents or guardian.
You can talk to us about whatever is on your mind, we’ll listen. This might include how you look, problems at school or college, how people are treating you, and worries about exams or money.
Read about our Safeguarding Policy.
What if I have mental health issues?
You can still get in touch with us. We provide the same support to people with mental health issues as we do for anyone else.
If you have a mental health diagnosis, you can talk about it with us, or you may want to talk to us about something else that’s troubling you, and that’s fine too.
We know that people with the same diagnosis may have very different experiences. We’ll explore what living with your mental health issue means for you. Your experience is the most important thing to us, not the label.
Because our volunteers aren’t trained mental health professionals, when you talk about your diagnosis or medication, we may not always be familiar with the medical terms.
Shouldn’t I talk to friends and family instead?
Some people do not have the support of friends or family. Others do have friends or family to talk to, but find that talking to someone neutral can also be beneficial.
We keep our conversations private, so we can't pass the information you give us onto anyone else and we won't judge or insist on giving advice.
Threatening and abusive behaviour
We do not tolerate behaviours that are: threatening, verbally abusive, sexually abusive or manipulative to our volunteers or staff. While we recognise that people who exhibit some of these behaviours have a right to the support they need, it’s not possible for us to provide a safe and supportive space when met with threatening or abusive behaviours.
We act to prevent further contacts from callers who behave in these ways. Please see our privacy policy for more information.
Limiting or withdrawing access to our services
From time to time we may have to use the information collected about you when you contact us to make decisions about limiting access to our services. If we believe you are abusing our service or are abusive towards volunteers, we will use our system to block your calls or messages from getting through.
If you can’t get through by phone, you will hear a message that explains how to contact us to discuss our decision to block you from our system.
If we take the decision to limit your access to our systems, we will make every effort to inform you as to the reason why we have restricted your access. We may ask you to give us a contact number so that a member of our Caller Support Team can call you to talk about your support needs.