Ways To Talk To Us

A trained advisor will answer your call, listen to your concerns and help you decide what to do next. They won’t call the police, parents, schools or any other authorities unless you ask them to (or unless they think someone’s life is in immediate danger). Calls from landlines are free and won’t show up on the phone bill. Calls from a mobile vary in cost depending on which network you’re on and might show up on the bill.

If it’s an emergency

For medical emergencies contact 999 immediately, or for non-urgent medical advice contact your GP or NHS 24. You should also read our page on Drugs First Aid.

What should I expect?

Many people are nervous or anxious about contacting a service, especially if it’s their first time doing so. Webchat is confidential and anonymous, all of the staff working in our service are highly trained substance misuse and mental health practitioners. We’re here to help and support you in a relaxed non-judgemental way.

Webchat allows you to speak to someone you can trust from a location and a setting that suits your needs. Maybe you’re really busy or you just don’t feel ready to talk to someone face-to-face or even over the phone, that’s where we come in to support you online.

Taking the first step can be daunting but it is the best way to improve your situation, whatever that may be, we’re happy we can help when someone needs our support.

We can spend some time talking about how you feel alcohol is impacting on your life. This will help give us a clear picture of what ways you would benefit from support. Remember, you can tell us as little or as much as you like – we’re not here to push you to disclose anything you’re not comfortable telling us.

You’re speaking with a real person, a member of our staff who’s got loads of experience helping people. All of our staff are able to offer guidance and support regarding alcohol use and mental health. It’s worth remembering that our staff are not medically trained and can’t offer medical interventions. They can however advise on who the best person would be to see in these circumstances.

The staff can give tips and tricks on how to reduce or just get control of alcohol use again. They can also make a plan and be there (online) to support you through to achieving your goals. We know it can be a minefield looking for support – If you would prefer to see someone face-to-face – we can find who the local support in your area would be and put you in touch with them.

We have a few staff who work full time running our webchat making sure you won’t have to wait long to speak to someone. When we are not around you can leave us a message and we will get back to you via email as soon as possible.

Who’s webchat for?

You’re the expert of your own situation. People contact us for different reasons – it can help the webchat staff if they know what steps you’re ready to take before they help you find resources or direct you towards the right support. We won’t give you explicit “you must do this” instead we will talk about some options available for you to make the best decision for yourself.

Self-care is important, especially if you have a loved one who is experiencing difficulty with alcohol. If you are focusing on someone else, it’s easy to forget about caring for yourself. Taking care of yourself may be as simple as eating a good breakfast to prepare for the day or getting enough sleep at night. We can suggest good ways to look after yourself and get the right people involved to support you.

Whether you’re deciding how to cut down, stop, or you want to share your concerns about your loved one, there’s always more than one right solution and together we can help you sort through the options to determine the best one for you.

Maybe over the course of your conversation you’ve thought of another question, or maybe you feel more comfortable asking something you were scared to ask before. So don’t hesitate to ask anything at any point.