Suicide Hotlines and Crisis Lines in Portugal

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 clinical psychologists, nurses or trained volunteers, depending on the service. If you are not in Portugal, the worldwide list is organised by country.

Portugal has a national suicide-prevention line. It is 1411, it is free, and the health service states that it works 24 hours a day, every day of the year. It did not appear on the previous version of this page, and neither did any emergency number.

Several of the lines below are volunteer services that open in the afternoon or evening and close before dawn. Their hours are printed with them. These answer at any hour: 112, 144, 1411, the SNS 24 counselling service, the domestic-violence line 800 202 148, and the children's line 116 111.

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 these lines are charged at ordinary national rates, and where an organisation publishes no call cost we say so rather than guess.

Most Portuguese services publish nothing about the languages they answer in, 1411 included. The one verified English-language route is the SNS 24 counselling service. Voz de Apoio states that it answers in Portuguese only.

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 PORTUGAL

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

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

Emergency numbers, 112 and 144

Linha Nacional de Prevenção do Suicídio, 1411, the national line

SNS 24 psychological counselling, 808 24 24 24, option 4

SOS Voz Amiga

Conversa Amiga

Telefone da Amizade, Porto

Vozes Amigas de Esperança, Porto

Voz de Apoio, Porto, in Portuguese

SOS Estudante, Coimbra, open late

ADEB, for people living with depression and bipolar disorder

Linha 1414, for addiction and dependency

APAV, Linha de Apoio à Vítima, 116 006

CIG, 800 202 148, for domestic violence

Linha SOS Criança, 116 111, for children

While you are waiting to be answered

If you are worried about someone else

---

Emergency numbers, 112 and 144

Portugal runs one general emergency number and one national social-emergency line. Neither appeared anywhere on the previous version of this page.

112, the single European emergency number. The government's own emergency guide states it plainly: "Emergência médica - 112. Disponível 24h por dia, todos os dias. O 112 é o número de telefone de emergência único europeu, disponível em toda a União Europeia. As chamadas são gratuitas." Medical emergency, 112, available 24 hours a day, every day, the single European emergency number, and calls are free. The government's Linhas Úteis directory names the responsible body as the Secretaria-Geral do Ministério da Administração Interna.

The health service names the same number for a life-threatening situation: "em caso de emergência, risco de vida, ligue imediatamente para o 112 do INEM."

Emergency: 112

Hours: 24 hours a day, every day.

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

144, Linha Nacional de Emergência Social. This is a social-protection emergency line, not a mental-health line, and it is included because homelessness, destitution and immediate unsafety are common at three in the morning. The government's directory: "A Linha Nacional de Emergência Social garante resposta imediata a situações que necessitem de atuação emergente e urgente no âmbito da proteção social." The responsible body is the Instituto da Segurança Social.

Tel: 144

Hours: 24 hours a day, every day.

Cost: free.

Linha Nacional de Prevenção do Suicídio, 1411, the national line

This is Portugal's national suicide-prevention telephone service, run by the Ministério da Saúde and operated within, but separately from, the Linha SNS 24. The health service's own page describes it as "um serviço telefónico de apoio a situações relacionadas com ideação suicida e comportamentos autolesivos", a telephone service supporting situations related to suicidal ideation and self-harming behaviour, and says it is focused exclusively on that.

It is answered by "profissionais com formação em saúde mental", clinical psychologists and mental-health nurse specialists, who offer what the service itself calls "uma intervenção breve em crise, mas que não é uma psicoterapia", a brief crisis intervention, which is not psychotherapy. Where a professional identifies risk to life or serious risk to health, the call is transferred to INEM's CODU, the same service 112 reaches. Minors may call with the consent of a parent or legal representative.

On privacy, the service's own wording: "Toda a informação pessoal e clínica fornecida pelos utentes no âmbito deste serviço, é tratada com dever de confidencialidade."

The line was created by Portaria n.º 291/2025/1 of 4 September 2025 and Portaria n.º 316/2025/1 of 18 September 2025.

Tel: 1411

Hours: "O número 1411 funciona 24h por dia, todos os dias do ano", 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in the service's own words.

Cost: free. The service's own page asks whether the line is free and answers "Sim".

Languages: not published.

SNS 24 psychological counselling, 808 24 24 24, option 4

This is a psychological counselling service inside the national health line, run by SPMS with the Ordem dos Psicólogos Portugueses and the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Its own page states plainly who answers: "Este serviço é realizado por psicólogos clínicos." Its stated purposes are to help a caller manage stress, anxiety, distress and fear in a crisis, to build psychological resilience, and to refer on where the psychologist judges that is needed. It is open to any citizen and to health professionals. Callers are asked to consent to the call being recorded, and the call goes ahead either way.

One limit, in the service's own words: "A Linha SNS 24 não é destinada ao atendimento direto de situações de risco de suicídio. No entanto, perante essa situação, a Linha SNS 24 encaminha imediatamente a chamada para o INEM." The SNS 24 line is not meant for the direct handling of situations of suicide risk; faced with one, it routes the call straight to INEM. If that is why you are calling, 1411 above is the line for it.

Tel: 808 24 24 24, then select option 4

Hours: "O serviço está disponível 24 horas por dia, 7 dias por semana", 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Cost: this is the only line on this page that answers at any hour and is not free. The government's emergency guide prices the Linha SNS 24 at "o valor de uma chamada para a rede fixa", the price of a national landline call. No page we read calls it free.

Languages: Portuguese and English. The service's own page: "O serviço de aconselhamento psicológico da Linha SNS 24 está disponível para pessoas que não falam português. Atualmente, o apoio está garantido em inglês." The English service opened on 22 April 2022.

SOS Voz Amiga

SOS Voz Amiga is an emotional-support line, and it describes its own reach: "A SOS VOZ AMIGA é uma linha de apoio emocional que se disponibiliza a ajudar todos aqueles que se encontram em situações de sofrimento causadas pela solidão, ansiedade, depressão ou risco de suicídio." It offers anonymity and a space without moral, sexual, religious or political constraint, and calls itself "uma linha de prevenção constituída por uma equipa especializada".

It was founded on 9 October 1978 by the psychiatrist Prof. Fragoso Mendes and describes itself as "a primeira linha telefónica de ajuda generalista em Portugal", the first general telephone helpline in Portugal. It is based in Lisbon. It publishes no sentence claiming national coverage, though its own history page says that over four decades it has answered calls "de todos os pontos do país", from every part of the country.

Tel: 213 544 545

Tel: 912 802 669

Tel: 963 524 660

Tel: 930 712 500

Hours: "Diariamente das 15h30 às 00h30", daily from 15:30 to 00:30, printed beside the numbers on the organisation's own homepage and contacts page. Its English page gives the same window as "Daily from 3:30pm to 12:30am".

Cost: not free, and not described as free. The organisation marks the first number as a national landline call and the other three as national mobile calls, at standard rates.

Languages: not published for the telephone service. The organisation publishes a full English version of its website.

Conversa Amiga

Conversa Amiga is an emotional-support line run by Fundação INATEL, a public foundation. Its own page describes the work as "um diálogo empático, expresso de forma clara e assertiva, focado na escuta ativa, na suspensão de julgamentos, na compreensão e validação de sentimentos, e mantendo o anonimato e confidencialidade de quem telefona e de quem atende".

It is answered by "30 voluntários com formação específica e especialmente preparados para este atendimento telefónico", thirty volunteers with specific training. The foundation reports roughly 4,000 contacts a month. Since a protocol with ADEB it also runs a suicide-prevention strand, "Com (Vida) – Prevenção do Suicídio".

Tel: 808 237 327

Tel: 210 027 159

Hours: "Horário de atendimento: 15h00 às 22h00", 15:00 to 22:00, and the service is provided "todos os dias, durante todo o ano", every day, all year round.

Cost: "Este serviço de apoio emocional gratuito", free, in the operator's own words. The 808 prefix is a shared-cost range and no per-minute rate is published; both facts are recorded and neither is reconciled here.

Languages: not published.

Telefone da Amizade, Porto

Telefone da Amizade states its purpose in one sentence: "Escutamos quando ninguém ouve, qualquer pessoa, qualquer assunto, mesmo suicídio." We listen when nobody hears, any person, any subject, even suicide.

Founded in 1980, it is a private social-solidarity association recognised as being of public utility, run entirely by volunteers, and it says plainly that it is neither religious nor governmental. Its support follows the Samaritans model and it is a full member of Befrienders Worldwide. It is based in Porto; the number works from anywhere in the country.

Tel: 22 832 35 35

Email: jo@telefone-amizade.pt

Hours: "Todos os dias, das 16h às 23h", every day, 16:00 to 23:00.

Cost: not stated as free. The site marks the number as a national landline call.

Languages: not published.

Vozes Amigas de Esperança, Porto

Vozes Amigas de Esperança de Portugal, which runs its line as the Telefone da Esperança, describes itself as "uma organização de voluntariado sem fins lucrativos" that promotes emotional health and supports people living through emotional crisis. It calls the number below "a nossa linha de apoio em crise por telefone", our telephone crisis-support line, and says: "Estamos disponíveis para o(a) escutar e orientar."

It is based in Porto and publishes no national claim. The number works from anywhere in the country.

Tel: 222 030 707

WhatsApp: 960 460 446, which the organisation publishes for information rather than as its crisis channel. The telephone line above is the crisis route.

Hours: "todos os dias das 16H00 e às 22H00", every day, 16:00 to 22:00.

Cost: not published.

Languages: not published.

Voz de Apoio, Porto, in Portuguese

Voz de Apoio describes what it offers in its own words: "A Voz de Apoio disponibiliza apoio emocional gratuito (não é atendimento clínico), de caráter pontual, anónimo e confidencial, sem julgamentos." Free emotional support, which is not clinical care, occasional, anonymous and confidential, without judgement. It adds: "Quando necessita de falar com alguém, quando se sente só, quando tem dificuldades ou problemas, quando está em sofrimento, ou quando pensa em suicídio, ligue-se à Voz de Apoio. Não é necessário identificar-se e tudo o que disser fica em segredo."

It also says: "Na Voz de Apoio, pessoas atendem pessoas. Não temos máquinas." It runs chat, email and face-to-face channels as well, and a separate service for minors. It is based in Porto.

If you get no answer inside the hours below, the organisation asks you to try again later. Its own wording: "Se estabelecer ligação com a Voz de Apoio, dentro do horário definido, mas não obtiver resposta, tal significa que a capacidade de atendimento estará esgotada nesse momento; por favor tente mais tarde."

Tel: 225 50 60 70

Hours: "todos os dias entre as 21h e as 00h, hora de Portugal continental", every day from 21:00 to 00:00, mainland Portuguese time.

Cost: "atende por Telefone, gratuitamente", free, in the organisation's own words.

Languages: Portuguese only. The organisation says so twice on its own pages: it answers "em português", and its standing contact block repeats "Atendimento em Português".

SOS Estudante, Coimbra, open late

The Linha SOS Estudante is run by the Associação Académica de Coimbra. In its own words: "Oferecemos uma linha de Apoio Emocional composta por estudantes do ensino superior preparados/as para auxiliar aqueles/as que precisam de um espaço anónimo e confidencial para desabafar." It describes itself plainly as "uma linha de apoio emocional e prevenção do suicídio", and says the line is free of prejudice and accepts interpersonal difference without religious, political or ideological influence.

It was created by and for students, and it is now open to everyone: "a nossa Linha SOS Estudante tem como público-alvo todos/as que precisam, sendo estudante ou não." Its own reporting bears that out. It records roughly 1,799 calls between September 2024 and July 2025, with the largest age band 36 to 64.

Tel: 915 246 060

Tel: 969 554 545

Tel: 239 484 020

Hours: "Funcionamos todos os dias entre as 20h e a 1h (exceto férias escolares)", every day from 20:00 to 01:00, except during university holidays. The closure is part of the hours and is printed with them.

Cost: not published.

Languages: not published.

ADEB, for people living with depression and bipolar disorder

ADEB is the Associação de Apoio aos Doentes Depressivos e Bipolares. Its telephone service, SOS: Sentir ADEB, is described by the association as the "meio de apoio à distância mais acessível e prático, para que as pessoas, em estado de angústia, ansiedade e ideações suicidas, obtenham informações sobre a doença Unipolar e Bipolar, tendo em vista ajudar a atenuar o sofrimento", the most accessible and practical form of support at a distance, so that people in distress, anxiety and suicidal ideation can get information about unipolar and bipolar illness. The service runs by telephone, email and post.

This is an association's support and information line with weekday office hours, not a crisis line that answers at night. Its homepage reports supporting 1554 people through it. If you need someone now and ADEB is closed, 1411 above answers at any hour.

Tel, Lisbon head office: 21 854 07 40

Tel, Lisbon head office: 21 854 07 44

Tel, Lisbon head office: 21 854 07 45

Tel, Porto delegation: 22 606 64 14

Tel, Coimbra delegation: 23 981 25 74

Email: adeb@adeb.pt

Hours: "Seg. a Sexta: 10H às 18H", Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 18:00, with a lunch closure from 13:00 to 14:00. ADEB publishes the same hours for all three offices.

Cost: not published as free. The numbers are marked as national fixed-network calls.

Languages: not published.

Linha 1414, for addiction and dependency

Linha 1414 is run by ICAD, the Instituto para os Comportamentos Aditivos e as Dependências, part of the Ministério da Saúde. In the operator's own words it is "um serviço anónimo, gratuito e confidencial de aconselhamento, informação e encaminhamento" that "oferece suporte emocional em situações de crise", an anonymous and confidential counselling, information and referral service, provided free of charge, which offers emotional support in crisis situations.

Its scope is substance use, licit and illicit, and non-substance addictive behaviours such as gambling and social media. You may call about someone else.

Tel: 1414

Email: 1414@icad.min-saude.pt

Hours: "Funciona todos os dias úteis entre as 10h00 e as 18h00", weekdays only, 10:00 to 18:00.

Cost: "gratuito", free, in the operator's own words.

Languages: not published.

APAV, Linha de Apoio à Vítima, 116 006

APAV, the Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima, runs the national line for victims of crime and violence. Its own page: "A APAV está disponível para apoiar todas as vítimas de crime ou violência, bem como seus familiares e amigos/as." Its contacts portal adds: "Ouvimos, ajudamos a perceber os próximos passos e ficamos consigo — sem pressas e em confidencialidade." APAV also runs a national network of local victim-support offices.

Tel: 116 006

Email: lav@apav.pt

Hours: "dias úteis, das 08h às 23h", weekdays only, 08:00 to 23:00. It does not answer at weekends.

Cost: "chamada gratuita", free.

Languages: not published.

CIG, 800 202 148, for domestic violence

The Comissão para a Cidadania e a Igualdade de Género runs the Serviço de Informação a Vítimas de Violência Doméstica, a state service running since November 1998. In CIG's own words: "este serviço telefónico de informação gratuito, anónimo e confidencial funciona 24 horas por dia / 365 dias por ano, para apoiar vítimas de violência doméstica através do número 800 202 148."

It adds that the staff are trained for "apoio psicossocial a vítimas de violência doméstica", psychosocial support, and give information about rights, about services across the country, and about where psychological, social and legal help can be found. Its scope is domestic violence. It answers at three in the morning, which few Portuguese lines do, and it takes SMS as well as calls.

Tel: 800 202 148

SMS: 3060

Email: violencia@cig.gov.pt

Hours: "24 horas por dia / 365 dias por ano", 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Cost: "gratuito", free. CIG states that the SMS line is confidential and free as well.

Languages: not published.

Linha SOS Criança, 116 111, for children

The Linha SOS Criança is run by the Instituto de Apoio à Criança. The government's own emergency guide describes it as a "serviço de apoio às crianças para exporem os seus problemas e falarem de questões que as afetam diretamente", a support service for children to set out their problems and talk about things that affect them directly. IAC publishes the number on its own site under its own name.

IAC publishes a second harmonised European number alongside it, the Linha SOS Criança Desaparecida, for a missing child.

Tel: 116 111

Tel, missing children: 116 000

Hours: "Disponível 24h por dia, todos os dias", 24 hours a day, every day, for both numbers. That comes from the government portal. IAC's own pages publish neither hours nor cost, only the numbers, and the split is recorded rather than blurred.

Cost: "As chamadas são gratuitas", free, per the government portal.

Languages: not published.

While you are waiting to be answered

A line that is open can still be busy, and Voz de Apoio says so itself: inside its own hours, no answer means capacity is full at that moment, and it asks you to try again later.

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 1411, which answers at any hour, or 112, or go to the emergency department of 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. 1411 takes calls from people at risk and from those close to them, and it answers at any hour.

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

BACK TO TOP