# Emergency help

Source: https://spingarncounselingservices.com/help/

Emergency help

# If you need help right now.

This practice cannot answer the phone around the clock, so this page exists to point you somewhere that can. Every service listed here is free, staffed by people, and available whether or not you are a client of ours.

## Start here

If you are in immediate danger, thinking about harming yourself, or worried about someone who is:

988

The **988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline** is the national suicide and crisis line. It is free, confidential, and staffed by people 24 hours a day, in English and Spanish. You can call, text, or chat. You do not need to be suicidal to use it. Feeling like things are coming apart is reason enough.

[Call 988](tel:988)
[Text 988](sms:988?&body=I%20am%20reaching%20out%20for%20urgent%20support%20and%20need%20to%20speak%20with%20someone.)

**If there is a medical emergency, or someone is in danger right now, call [911](tel:911)** or go to your nearest emergency room.

## Long Island and New York

These are the local services. All of them are free, and none of them require you to be a client of this practice.

### Suffolk County, 24 hours

The **Diagnostic, Assessment and Stabilization Hub (DASH)** is Suffolk County's crisis center, open every day of the year as a walk-in alternative to an emergency room for mental health and substance use crises.

[Call (631) 952-3333](tel:+16319523333)
[Text DASH](sms:+16319523333?&body=I%20am%20reaching%20out%20for%20urgent%20support%20and%20need%20to%20speak%20with%20someone.)

Walk in at any hour: 90 Adams Avenue, Hauppauge.

### Suffolk County crisis hotline

The **Response Crisis Center** has answered Suffolk County's hotline for decades and is a certified 988 partner, so the counselors are the same trained team.

[Call (631) 751-7500](tel:+16317517500)
[Text](sms:+16317517500?&body=I%20am%20reaching%20out%20for%20urgent%20support%20and%20need%20to%20speak%20with%20someone.)

### Nassau County

The **Long Island Crisis Center** runs a 24 hour suicide prevention and crisis hotline and answers 988 for Nassau County.

[Call (516) 679-1111](tel:+15166791111)
[Text](sms:+15166791111?&body=I%20am%20reaching%20out%20for%20urgent%20support%20and%20need%20to%20speak%20with%20someone.)

### New York City

Call **988**, or **NYC 988** on 1-888-692-9355, for free and confidential support from counselors and peer specialists, available in more than 200 languages.

[Call 1-888-692-9355](tel:+18886929355)
[Call 988](tel:988)

## Other ways to reach someone

### Veterans

The **Veterans Crisis Line** is staffed by people who understand service, deployment, and coming home. You do not need to be enrolled with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to use it.

[Call 988, then press 1](tel:988)
[Text 838255](sms:838255?&body=I%20am%20a%20veteran%20reaching%20out%20for%20urgent%20support%20and%20need%20to%20speak%20with%20someone.)

### Prefer to text

The **Crisis Text Line** is free, confidential, and available at any hour. Some people find texting far easier than speaking, and that is a perfectly good reason to use it.

[Text HOME to 741741](sms:741741?&body=HOME)

The first message needs to say HOME. That is what starts the conversation.

### Concerned about a child

If you believe a child is being abused or neglected, the **New York State Central Register** takes reports at any hour. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911 first.

[Call 1-800-342-3720](tel:+18003423720)

### Outside the United States

Contact your local emergency number or your nearest crisis service. If you are an online client of this practice and are not sure what is available where you are, ask at your next session and we will help you find it.

**What this practice can and cannot do.** Our voicemail is checked through the day and you will be called back as soon as time allows, but it is not monitored overnight or continuously, and neither is the contact form. Please do not use either one to report an emergency. Every service on this page is free, and none of it depends on being our client.

### If it is not an emergency, but it is heavy

There is a wide space between fine and in crisis, and most of the people we see are somewhere in it. You do not have to be at the worst point to deserve help, and you do not need to have any of it worked out before you call. We will meet you where you are.

[**Get in touch with the practice**](https://spingarncounselingservices.com/contact/)