Mental health support

Guidance from the National Institute of Mental Health and SAMHSA — including SAMHSA's Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center — on recognizing when someone is struggling, including yourself, and where help actually is.

988 reaches the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by call or text, 24/7, for you or for someone you're worried about.

SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential and open 24/7 in English and Spanish for treatment referrals and information.

Take talk of hopelessness, being a burden, or having no reason to live seriously — even offhand comments. Ask directly; asking does not plant the idea.

Watch for the quiet signs too: withdrawing from friends, sleeping far more or less, giving away belongings, or a sudden calm after a deep low.

Ask providers whether they use evidence-based practices. SAMHSA's Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center collects the treatments and screening tools shown by research to work.

Treatment options are not one-size-fits-all: SAMHSA's resource center covers talk therapy, medication-assisted treatment, peer support and early intervention for first-episode psychosis.

Help isn't only for crisis. NIMH and findtreatment.gov list local providers, support groups, and low-cost options you can search by ZIP.

If someone may be in immediate danger, stay with them, remove means of self-harm if you can do so safely, and call or text 988 together.

Sourced from public guidance published by the FTC, CISA, FEMA/Ready.gov, the National Weather Service, NHTSA, CPSC, the U.S. Fire Administration and CDC. Federal works are in the public domain; summaries and checklists on this page are original.

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