If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Everything below is for the rest of it: the weeks where you are not in danger but you are not all right either, and the part of the job that follows you home. You do not have to be in crisis to use any of it, and you do not have to tell your employer that you did.
If you need somebody right now, call or text 988
It is free, it is answered around the clock, and it routes to a crisis center in your own state. You do not need to be suicidal to call it.
This is the one that works everywhere, because 988 routes you to a crisis center in your own state rather than to a call room on the other side of the country. You do not have to be suicidal to use it, and the person who answers is trained to listen rather than to fix you in nine minutes.
Free and confidential. Spanish text and chat available, a line for Deaf and hard of hearing callers, and veterans and service members can press 1.
The people answering this line are retired law enforcement officers, which means you do not have to explain the job before you can explain the problem. It is open to current and former officers and to their families, and it exists precisely so that asking for help carries no consequence at work.
Free, confidential, and you can stay anonymous if you want to.
This is the route to finding actual treatment near you for mental health or substance use, rather than somebody to talk to in the moment. If what you need is a name, an appointment and a way to pay for it, this is the number that produces one.
Free and confidential, in English and Spanish.
This is a treatment referral and information service, not counseling. If you need somebody to talk to right now, call 988 instead.
A crisis line set up specifically for first responders, which has been running for years and is widely referred to across the fire and law enforcement world.
Confidential crisis referral for public safety employees and their families.
We could not confirm current operating hours from their own website when we last checked. If you need a guaranteed answer at any hour, use 988 or CopLine.
Families and survivorsContact through their website rather than by phone.
First H.E.L.P.
They support the families left behind after a first responder dies by suicide, across law enforcement, fire, EMS, dispatch and corrections, and they do the training and advocacy work that tries to stop it happening again. If you have lost somebody, this is where the people who understand it are.
Free. A nonprofit organization.
They point people to CopLine for a phone conversation rather than running a crisis line themselves.
A residential treatment center built specifically for fire service members, covering post-traumatic stress, addiction, depression and anxiety, where everybody in the building understands what the job actually involves.
Open to IAFF members only.
This is for IAFF members. If you are not a member, use SAMHSA's helpline to find treatment near you instead.
We are building this out state by state, starting with the places the training has actually been delivered, and we would rather show you nothing than show you a number that has been disconnected. Where a state is not filled in yet, 988 still covers it, because it routes to a crisis center in that state.