Suicide Hotlines and Crisis Lines in Italy

A helpline is a place to talk to someone when you are struggling, before or instead of a crisis. The lines on this page are answered by trained volunteers or by specialist staff, depending on the service. If you are not in Italy, the worldwide list is organised by country.

What you share is kept private in almost all cases; if a counsellor believes a life is in immediate danger, they may arrange urgent help. What each service costs is set out beside it below. Most of the lines here are free to call. Two are not, and the charge is said next to the number rather than in a footnote.

Every line on this page is answered in Italian. None of these organisations publishes the other languages it can take a call in, so we do not claim any. If you cannot hold a conversation in Italian, the worldwide list above is organised by country.

TherapyRoute is a directory. We do not answer calls or messages ourselves, so please use the numbers below rather than contacting us if you need someone now.

CRISIS LINES, SUICIDE HOTLINES, AND HELPLINES IN ITALY

Each number below was checked in September 2026 at the operating organisation's own website, or at an Italian government page.

Notice an error or a missing service? Please tell us so we can correct it.

112, Italy's single emergency number

Telefono Azzurro, Linea di Ascolto 1.96.96, free and answered at any hour

Telefono Amico Italia, and its WhatsApp line

Samaritans OdV, Rome

De Leo Fund, for people bereaved by suicide

1522, for women experiencing violence or stalking

114, for a child in immediate danger

While you are waiting to be answered

If you are worried about someone else

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112, Italy's single emergency number

112 is the Numero Unico Europeo per le Emergenze, Italy's one number for every emergency. The Ministero dell'Interno puts it plainly on its own site: if you need help in an emergency and want the State Police, the Carabinieri, the fire brigade, the coast guard or medical rescue to attend, call 112 free of charge. Your call reaches the Centrale Unica di Risposta for your area. The operator takes your location, what has happened and your name, then passes the call to the room that sends help.

Tel: 112

Cost: free, in the ministry's own words.

One honest caveat about reach. The ministry publishes a map so that a caller can check whether 112 is running in their province, so coverage is presented province by province rather than as a single national claim. The previous version of this page said the number reaches the police, the fire service and medical emergency services. That is right as far as it goes, and it is short by two: the coast guard and the Carabinieri answer it as well.

The ministry also names a dedicated route for deaf callers, 112 Sordi. We have not read how it is reached, so we do not describe it here.

Telefono Azzurro, Linea di Ascolto 1.96.96, free and answered at any hour

Telefono Azzurro runs the Linea di Ascolto 1.96.96, dialled 19696. In the foundation's own words the line is for children, adolescents and adults, it is a free service, and it takes requests for help from across the national territory. The name is misleading to an English reader, because Telefono Azzurro is known abroad as a children's charity. Adults can and do call this number.

The foundation was set up in Bologna in 1987 and reports that mental health, digital distress and adolescence are what people ask it about most.

Tel: 19696

Chat: azzurro.it

Hours: 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in the organisation's own words. It says the same thing on its home page and on every topic page we read.

Cost: free, and reachable from a landline and from a mobile.

Languages: not published.

Telefono Amico Italia, and its WhatsApp line

Telefono Amico Italia has answered since 1967. Its own words: since 1967 it has worked to give anyone in a state of crisis or emotional emergency, at any moment and completely free of charge, the chance to find a volunteer open to listening and to conversation. Almost 700 volunteers answer from 23 centres across Italy. The organisation says its centres safeguard the caller's anonymity, and that the service belongs to no church and no party.

02 2327 2327 is the organisation's national number. Its Treviso centre page says so directly: the centre keeps its own freephone line and subscribes to the national number.

Tel: 02 2327 2327

WhatsApp: 324 011 72 52

Hours, phone: every day from 09:00 to 24:00. The organisation's own site does not agree with itself about this today. Two of its pages, both edited on 31 August 2026, say the phone is answered at any hour. Its own page metadata, its youth page and its Treviso centre page all still publish 09:00 to 24:00, and a live fundraising page says the lines still go dark at night and names the sum it must raise before that changes. We print the figure the organisation has published longest and has not withdrawn, and we say plainly that it is in dispute. If you call late and nobody answers, the entry above this one is open.

Hours, WhatsApp: every day from 18:00 to 21:00, on the organisation's most recently edited page. Its youth page publishes a different window, 18:00 to 24:00. The previous version of this page printed no hours for this line at all.

Cost: the service is free. The call is charged by your own telephone operator at the price of a call to an ordinary national landline.

Languages: not published.

Samaritans OdV, Rome

Samaritans OdV describes itself in its own words: it is ready to listen to anyone looking for someone to talk to in complete confidence, and its commitment is to give emotional support to people living through a crisis, loneliness or depression, and especially to those who have come to see suicide as the only way out.

The organisation publishes a Rome landline and makes no claim to cover the whole country, so we do not make one for it.

Tel: 06 77208977

Hours: every day from 13:00 to 22:00, in the organisation's own words.

Cost: charged at your own operator's ordinary rate.

Languages: not published.

De Leo Fund, for people bereaved by suicide

De Leo Fund is a Padua charity whose helpline is for people bereaved by a traumatic death. Its own words: the helpline is for those who have lost someone close to them through a traumatic bereavement such as suicide, homicide, a road accident, a workplace accident or a natural disaster. Calls are answered by specially trained staff. From there a caller can be taken into individual, couple or family psychological support, or told what help exists near them.

The organisation states that its helpline runs throughout Italy on a free national-coverage number, and that all of its services are free and are not time-limited.

Tel: 800 168 678

Chat: deleofund.org/helpline

Hours: Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 19:00. The live chat keeps the same window.

Cost: free.

Languages: not published.

1522, for women experiencing violence or stalking

1522 is a public service of the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, through its Dipartimento per le Pari Opportunità. In its own words it is answered by specialist women operators and takes requests for help and support from women who are victims of violence and stalking. It is a scoped line, not a general crisis line, and it does not replace one.

Tel: 1522

Chat: 1522.eu

Hours: 24 hours a day, in the service's own words.

Cost: free, including from a mobile.

Languages: the site is published in Italian, English, French, Spanish and Arabic. The languages the line itself is answered in are not published, so we do not name any.

114, for a child in immediate danger

114 is the emergency number for children and adolescents in immediate danger. In the service's own words: if you are the victim or a witness of violence against a minor, call 114. It has been promoted by the Dipartimento per le Politiche della Famiglia and run by Telefono Azzurro since 2003, the year it was set up. It is an emergency route, not a listening line, and the entry above at 19696 is the listening line the same organisation runs.

Tel: 114

Chat: 114.it, which also offers a WhatsApp route

Hours: not published. Neither the service's own site nor Telefono Azzurro's states them, so we do not repeat a claim that belongs to a different line.

Cost: not published.

Languages: not published.

While you are waiting to be answered

A line that is open can still be busy, and three lines on this page close at night: Telefono Amico Italia, which its own pages put at 09:00 to 24:00; Samaritans OdV, 13:00 to 22:00; and the De Leo Fund, which answers on weekdays only. If you are waiting, try to stay with someone you trust, or ask someone to sit with you until the call connects.

If you have anything near you that you could use to harm yourself, put it somewhere harder to reach, or ask someone else to hold it for you. Distance and time both help.

If waiting is not possible, dial 112, or go to the pronto soccorso at your nearest hospital. You do not need an appointment and you do not need to explain yourself well.

If you are worried about someone else

Ask them directly. Asking someone whether they are thinking of suicide does not put the idea there, and it often comes as a relief to be asked plainly.

Listen more than you advise. You do not need the right words, and you are not expected to fix anything.

If they are willing, offer to sit with them while they phone one of the numbers above, or to make the call together. If they are in immediate danger, treat it as you would any medical emergency.

Supporting someone through this is heavy, and it is reasonable to want support of your own. The Linea di Ascolto answers at any hour and is open to adults. If you have lost someone to suicide, De Leo Fund exists for exactly that, and its staff are trained for it.

For services in other countries, see the list of helplines and suicide hotlines worldwide.

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