This section has details on services offering helplines, online counselling and text support. There are services for young people, for parents/carers and services focused on particular difficult situations or feelings. All these services are here to help people and many can also direct you to other support available.
Young Minds have a beginner’s guide to the NHS’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for young people and parents.
If you or someone you care for needs help 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 or, if you can, go straight to A&E. Details on emergency advice from Mind are available here.
Speak to someone
Qwell
For free, safe and confidential online counselling and wellbeing services for adults and students, contact Jami Qwell.
This is a nationwide online service provided by Qwell and offered for free to the community via Jami.
Shout
If you are struggling to cope or need immediate help, contact Shout’s 24/7 crisis text service. Text Jami to 85258
Shout are working with Jami to deliver this service to the Jewish community.
Samaritans
Samaritans provide confidential support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair.
Phone: 116 123
(free 24-hour helpline)
Family Lives
Family Lives offer advice on all aspects of parenting, including dealing with bullying.
0808 800 2222
(Monday to Friday, 9am to 9pm | Saturday to Sunday,
10am to 3pm)
Addiction Helper
Addiction Helper have fully trained addiction counsellors 24 hours a day and offer advice on both NHS and private treatment options. This service is 100% free confidential.
0800 024 1488
Young Minds
Young Minds free, 24/7 text support for young people. Texts can be anonymous, but if the volunteer believes you are at immediate risk of harm, they may share your details with people who can provide support.
Text: YM to 85258
They also have a beginner’s guide to the NHS’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for young people and parents.
PLEASE NOTE: This page collate a range of charities and organisations to assist people more easily and quickly be aware of available services. The JLC and the Youth Mental Health Partnership hope these will be useful for those contacting them, however we are not in a position to officially endorse any specific organisation or service.
Support lines directory
Find almost 50 support line services including Jewish charities, general advice, as well as specific support for bereavement, addiction, debt and anxiety from across the wider voluntary sector.
The Youth Mental Health Partnership
Our vision is for every child and family in our community to have access to clearly understood, considerate, comprehensive and effective services that advance the recovery of young people who experience a mental health problem.
This partnership aspires to establish the foundations for progress towards this vision and generate learning for how these providers, and organisations within and beyond our community, can be part of meeting the growing mental health needs for children and young people within the UK Jewish community.
About the jlc community portal
The JLC connects and coordinates the Jewish charitable sector, strengthens and supports leadership across our community, and magnifies and amplifies the individual voices and collective voice of our member organisations. Now is the time for cooperation and collective responsibility.
Working alongside the Board of Deputies at the beginning of the pandemic, the JLC regularly brought together CEOs from over 60 organisations. Our teams have been working with many more parts of the community every day during this crisis.
This portal is a development of that work, collating advice, resources and access to communal life online, in one place, for everyone across the Jewish community.
For more information on the JLC, visit our website at www.thejlc.org
