Suicide Hotlines and Crisis Lines in Paraguay

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 psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers or lawyers, depending on the service. If you are not in Paraguay, 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. Both helplines below are free, on their operators' own pages, and each serves the group set out beside it.

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 PARAGUAY

Each number below was checked in September 2026 at the government ministry page that runs the service.

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

Emergency numbers, and what each one is for

Línea 155 Salud Mental, the national mental health crisis line

147 Fono Ayuda, for children and adolescents

While you are waiting to be answered

If you are worried about someone else

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Emergency numbers, and what each one is for

Paraguay runs separate emergency numbers for police, ambulance and fire, and the Ministry of Health states that they are linked, so a health call arriving on the others is transferred to the ambulance service.

Police and national emergency system: 911

The Sistema 911 is run by the Ministry of the Interior, the National Police and the national telecommunications commission CONATEL. Its centre in Asunción covers the capital and the departments of Central, Cordillera, Presidente Hayes and Boquerón, and a regional centre has been added for Departamento Central; the system locates callers in real time. The Ministry of Health treats 911 as the standing emergency channel that its own crisis line works with.

Ambulance (SEME): 141 from a landline, 021-141 from a mobile

The Ministry of Health reminds the public of "the availability of 141 (landline) and 021-141 (mobile), through which the SEME ambulance service can be reached, available 24 hours" (our gloss of the ministry's Spanish). The same page states the call is free and that the pre-hospital service is active 24 hours, 365 days a year.

Fire (Bomberos Voluntarios): 132

The Ministry of Health's page states that the 141 line is linked by fibre optic to the National Police's 911 and to the fire service's 132, and that health calls arriving on those numbers are transferred to 141.

Línea 155 Salud Mental, the national mental health crisis line

Línea 155 Salud Mental (Mental Health Line 155) is the Ministry of Public Health and Social Wellbeing's telephone crisis line, operating since May 2025. In the ministry's own words it is designed "to provide emotional containment, crisis intervention and timely orientation to people facing psychological suffering, suicide risk or urgent need of psychological support" (our gloss of the ministry's Spanish). The ministry describes the calls it expects: suicidal crises, episodes of anxiety and panic, situations of violence and abuse, and mental health orientation for individuals and family members.

Calls are answered by a team of professionals trained in crisis management, including psychologists and psychiatrists, and the line is formally articulated with the 911 emergency system, the SEME ambulance service and the children's line 147. From its start in May 2025 to the end of March 2026 it took 15,719 calls.

Tel: 155

Hours: 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in the ministry's own words: "está disponible las 24 horas durante todo el año".

Cost: free. The ministry describes it as "un servicio gratuito, confidencial y de cobertura nacional", a free, confidential service with national coverage.

147 Fono Ayuda, for children and adolescents

Fono Ayuda 147 is run by the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescence (Ministerio de la Niñez y la Adolescencia, MINNA). In the ministry's own definition it is "a telephone attention and orientation service for situations involving children and adolescents, specialised in providing psychological, social and legal orientation" in cases where rights are violated, such as mistreatment, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and neglect, and it also answers children's and adolescents' own genuine questions (our gloss of the ministry's Spanish).

Children and adolescents can call themselves, and so can any adult reporting a concern or seeking orientation. Calls are answered by a team of social orientators qualified in different areas, including lawyers, psychologists and social workers, who advise, contain and refer cases to the National Police, CODENI, the children's public defender's office or the prosecution service. The service has been ISO 9001 certified since March 2017.

Tel: 147

The ministry's dialling instructions: call 147 from a landline or from Tigo, Vox and Personal mobile lines, without adding *, # or 021; dial 147 directly.

Hours: 24 hours a day, seven days a week, holidays included, in rotating shifts, as the ministry publishes.

Cost: free. The ministry's own page says calling 147 has no cost. It publishes one caveat: on Personal mobile lines with no credit, the call is free but the system cuts it off after 3 minutes, so if you are calling on a Personal SIM without credit, say the most important thing first.

While you are waiting to be answered

A line that is open can still be busy. 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 911, or 141 from a landline (021-141 from a mobile), or go to a hospital emergency department. 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 call 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. Línea 155 states that its expected calls include mental health orientation for family members, and 147 takes calls from any adult worried about a child or adolescent.

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

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