Immediate Danger Comes Before Reading
If you might act on thoughts of suicide or serious harm now, if someone else may be in immediate danger, if there is possible overdose or serious injury, or if anyone cannot stay safe, contact emergency services for the person's physical location now. Use the local emergency number, go to an emergency department where that is the local route, or contact an official crisis service that can respond where the person is.
Do not keep reading before making contact. Say the simplest useful sentence: "I may not be safe right now. I need urgent help at this location." If you are with the person, stay present while help is contacted when that is safe for you. If violence or another danger threatens you, move to safety and call emergency services.
The World Health Organization suicide questions and answers treats suicidal thoughts and self-harm thoughts as severe distress and says immediate danger calls for emergency services or a crisis line. The NHS urgent mental-health help page gives the U.K. example: urgent expert advice is needed for a mental-health crisis, and 999 or A&E is appropriate when someone's life is at risk or people cannot keep themselves or someone else safe. Those numbers are U.K. routes, not instructions for every country.
When Danger Is Not Immediate But Help Is Needed
Urgent help can be needed even when no one is acting this minute. Thoughts of suicide or self-harm, escalating distress, not being able to cope with usual tasks, or feeling unable to keep yourself or another person safe deserves prompt human contact. The NIMH guide on whether help is needed uses severe, worsening, impairing, and safety-related symptoms as reasons to seek help rather than continuing alone. The NIMH help-finding page describes ways to find routine, urgent, and crisis support in the United States while noting provider questions and local care routes.
If danger becomes immediate, switch from waiting, reading, texting friends, or searching to emergency contact. If the danger is not immediate, still choose a real person or service: a local crisis line, a qualified health professional, a primary-care route, an emergency mental-health service, or a trusted person who can help you connect.
Use The Official Service For The Person's Location
Crisis and emergency services are tied to where the person at risk is physically located. A number from another country may not dispatch help, may not know local options, and may not be reachable. Use official local services whenever possible, and check current local information if time allows and danger is not immediate.
For immediate danger in the European Union, the European Commission describes 112 as the EU emergency number, available throughout the EU and free from fixed and mobile phones. Outside the EU, use the emergency number for the country or region where the person is. The CDC suicide prevention overview lists 988 as a U.S. crisis-support route; that is for people in the United States, not a number that works everywhere.
Country-Specific Crisis And Emergency Examples
These examples are not a worldwide directory. They are labeled by physical location:
- European Union: use 112 for immediate danger.
- United States: call or text 988 for suicide or crisis support, as listed by NIMH's five action steps and the CDC suicide prevention page. Use the local emergency service for immediate medical or safety emergencies.
- France: 3114 is the French national suicide-prevention number, described by the official 3114 service. Use it for France-labeled support.
- Germany: TelefonSeelsorge lists 0800 1110111, 0800 1110222, and 116 123 on its KrisenKompass page. Use emergency services for immediate danger.
- Austria: the official Austrian health portal crisis-number page lists TelefonSeelsorge 142, ambulance 144, and police 133. Use the service that fits the immediate situation.
- Switzerland and Liechtenstein: 143.ch contact information lists 143 for around-the-clock support and 0800 143 000 for English-language support. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health also identifies counselling and emergency offers as part of suicide-prevention support.
If the person's country is not here, use the official emergency number or official national crisis service for that country.
How To Support Someone Safely
If you are supporting someone, the first priority is connection to help, not solving the whole story. Stay with the person when that is safe, speak calmly, and take their words seriously. Do not argue them out of distress, shame them, promise secrecy, or make physical moves that could put you or others in danger.
The WHO psychological first aid guide emphasizes humane, practical support that respects dignity, culture, and abilities after serious crisis events. The CDC risk and protective factors page names connection to family, friends, community, and quality health care as protective factors while also recognizing risks such as isolation, violence, substance use, financial or job problems, discrimination, stigma, and access to lethal means. Those public-health factors support connection and care; they do not let a bystander predict who is or is not in danger from a distance.
Ask Directly, Stay Present, Reduce Access Only If Safe
Ask directly and plainly: "Are you thinking about suicide?" WHO states that asking about suicide does not cause suicidal behaviour. NIMH's five action steps use the same practical pattern: ask, be there, help keep the person safe, help them connect, and follow up.
If danger is immediate, contact emergency services. If you can safely reduce access to a likely means of harm without confronting anyone, escalating violence, or putting yourself at risk, do so while help is being arranged. If reducing access would be unsafe, do not attempt it; move to safety, keep communicating if safe, and contact emergency or crisis support.
After Urgent Help Is Connected
Once emergency, crisis, or qualified help is connected, follow that service's instructions. The NICE self-harm guideline supports early psychosocial assessment by a mental-health professional after self-harm, attention to physical care and immediate safety, care planning, family or carer involvement when appropriate, and follow-up. Only the connected service or qualified professionals can create that plan, decide discharge, or advise on medication.
Internal reading belongs here, after contact or in clearly non-immediate situations. For longer-term orientation, use self-help or therapy after the immediate risk is being handled, emotional-healing boundaries for non-immediate next steps, and where emotional-healing self-help should not carry the situation alone. If the situation is stable enough for skill practice, later reading can include CBT self-help only when the frame is stable and appropriate, stress management for non-immediate pressure, stress management techniques for stable situations, emotional resilience and regulation after urgent support, and relationship boundaries when it is safe to plan next steps.
What Urgent Guidance Must Not Try To Do
Assessment, naming a condition, treatment choices, dispatch, safety monitoring, and emergency or crisis response require qualified local services. Do not use warning-sign lists to rank distress or decide that someone does not deserve help. Absence of one sign is not reassurance. Presence of distress is enough reason to connect with a person or service that can respond.
It also cannot give legal, workplace, immigration, safeguarding, medication, or abuse-specific instructions. In coercion, stalking, violence, or safeguarding contexts, avoid joint confrontation or forced disclosure. Use competent local services and prioritize immediate safety.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I am not sure whether it is urgent?
If safety may be at risk, choose human help instead of private reading. Use local emergency services for immediate danger. If danger is not immediate but distress is severe, worsening, or connected to self-harm thoughts, contact an official crisis service, qualified health professional, or trusted person who can help you connect.
Should I stay with someone who might harm themselves?
Stay present when it is safe for you and do not leave a person alone if danger is immediate while help is being arranged. If your own safety is threatened, move to safety and call emergency services.
Are these numbers valid everywhere?
No. Each number is labeled for a specific country or region. Use the official emergency number or crisis service for the place where the person at risk is physically located.