Just over a year ago, we made some big changes to our Helpline, opening seven days a week, 365 days a year, for longer hours. This has allowed us to help far more people – 27,800 across calls, web chat, emails, support groups, and social media from April 2017 – March 2018.
Now we’re taking another look at our services and how people are using them, so that we can answer the question: how can we best help the greatest number of people with the resources available to us?
You’ll be able to call our Helplines and start new web chats from 12pm – 8pm during the week, and 4pm – 8pm on weekends and bank holidays.
Most of the times will stay the same, with the themed daily groups still running from 7pm – 8:30pm, and the Nest open group running from 6pm – 7pm. The Aviary open group, for anyone supporting someone with an eating disorder, will change to run from 7:30pm – 8:30pm.
No – you can still email or message us on our support Twitter, support Instagram, or Facebook at any time, and one of our Helpline advisors will get back to you as soon as possible. You can also still leave us a voicemail and we’ll return your call.
When reviewing the calls we’ve taken over the last year, we can see there’s a higher demand earlier in the day on weekdays, when we’ve been closed, while there’s less of a demand on weekends. By changing our Helpline hours to reflect this, we hope to be able to be available at the times people most need us. The changes will also increase our total hours of availability throughout the week to 51.5 hours, up from 49 hours. (Just in case you’re questioning our maths, our Helpline Advisors’ shifts will extend until 8:30pm, so they’re able to answer calls and web chats right up until 8pm).
We’re excited about the changes and what they mean for those who turn to us for support, and we’ll continue to review how people use our services so that we can help as many people as possible.