Crisis Resources

Call 911. Use this if someone has attempted suicide, taken an overdose, is seriously injured, or is in immediate physical danger.

When you call, you can ask for a Crisis Intervention Team officer if one is available. These are officers with additional mental health training, and asking costs nothing.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential, 24 hours a day. Support is available in Spanish, there is a videophone option for Deaf and hard of hearing callers, and veterans can press 1 to reach responders trained in military experience.

You do not need to be actively suicidal to call 988. It handles a wide range of distress, and calling early is the point of it.

Urgent, but not an emergency

This is the situation most people are in and the one that is worst served: something has escalated, waiting a week feels wrong, but nobody is in immediate danger.

Massachusetts Behavioral Health Help Line. Call or text 833-773-2445, or visit masshelpline.com. Free, 24/7, and the state's front door to mental health and substance use treatment. They can connect you to a Community Behavioral Health Center for a same-day or next-day evaluation, which is the fastest route to being seen in Massachusetts and is available regardless of insurance.

Mobile crisis teams. Every region has one, reachable through the Help Line above. They can evaluate someone in the community rather than requiring an emergency room, which matters when a hospital would make things worse or is not practical.

Crisis Text Line. Text HOME to 741741 for a trained volunteer counselor, free and 24/7. Useful when a phone call is not possible or not tolerable, and often easier for teenagers.

If you are our client

If something has escalated between sessions, call the office at 508-650-0991 during business hours and say it is urgent. We will get you to your clinician or to someone who can help.

Outside business hours we are not monitored. Email and text are for scheduling and are never checked for clinical content, so please do not use them to tell us something is wrong. Use 988 or 911, and tell your clinician at the next session.

Specific situations

Domestic violence. SafeLink, the Massachusetts statewide hotline, at 877-785-2020, 24/7 and multilingual. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. If you are being monitored, use a device the other person cannot access.

Sexual assault. RAINN at 800-656-4673, 24/7, free and confidential.

Child abuse or neglect. The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families child-at-risk hotline is 800-792-5200, 24/7. We are mandated reporters and will explain what that means at intake.

LGBTQ young people. The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386, or text START to 678-678. Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 is peer-staffed by trans people.

Substance use. The Massachusetts Substance Use Helpline at 800-327-5050, and the SAMHSA National Helpline at 800-662-4357. Withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazepines can be medically dangerous and should not be attempted alone.

Eating disorders. ANAD runs a helpline at 888-375-7767. Medical instability requires an emergency room rather than a helpline.

If you are worried about someone else

Ask directly. "Are you thinking about killing yourself" is the question people are most afraid to ask and the one that helps most. It does not plant the idea; the research on this is consistent and it is worth trusting.

Then stay, listen without rushing to fix it, and help them make the call rather than only giving them the number. If there is immediate danger, do not leave them alone and call 911.

If they are not in immediate danger but you cannot get them to act, you can call 988 yourself for guidance on how to approach it. You do not have to be the person in crisis to use it.

Reducing access matters more than people expect: securing firearms and medication is one of the most effective single interventions available, and it is a practical step rather than a statement about trust.

After a crisis

The days after a crisis are their own thing, and often when the real work starts.

If you were seen in an emergency room, you were likely given a follow-up recommendation and very little help acting on it. That gap is where people fall. If we can be the follow-up, call us and say what happened, and we will treat it as urgent. If we are not the right level of care, we will say so and help you find what is.

We are an outpatient practice. We do not provide detox, partial hospitalization, or inpatient care, and we will tell you plainly when what you need is above what we do.