Mental health, dads and partners
Crisis lines, perinatal mental health, and support aimed at fathers.
The short version
- Hallucinations, delusions, mania, confusion or rapidly changing moods, especially in the first two weeks after birth, need a same-day urgent GP assessment.
- Samaritans, 116 123, free from any phone including pay-as-you-go with no credit, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
- If you are the dad, partner, co-parent or non-birthing parent and you are struggling, that counts, and these services are for you.
- Mind and YoungMinds are not crisis lines, and Mind's 0300 numbers are not free. For someone right now, Samaritans is free.
- For dads: Andy's Man Club meets every Monday from 7pm, free, no booking. APP runs groups for dads and co-parents but has no phone line.
The rest of this page explains where this comes from. You do not have to read it tonight.
About 5 minutes to read
Mental health, dads and partners
Samaritans
Free 24 hours, 365 days
116 12324 hours a day, 365 days a year
Welsh Language Line: 0808 164 0123Free from landlines and mobiles, including a pay-as-you-go mobile with no credit. You do not have to be suicidal to call. Exhaustion, dread and the feeling that you cannot do another night are all reasons people ring.
Please use the phone number rather than email. Samaritans are closing their UK email service during 2026 and have asked organisations to stop advertising the address, so we have not published it.
Mind
0300 numbers, not free Not a crisis line
Infoline: 0300 123 3393 Support line: 0300 102 1234 Welfare benefits: 0300 222 5782 Legal line: 0300 466 64639am to 6pm Monday to Friday, except bank holidays. The welfare benefits line is 9 to 5
All of these are 0300 numbers and none of them is freephone. They are also not crisis lines. If you need someone right now, call Samaritans on 116 123, which is free.
YoungMinds Parents Helpline
Free UK-wide Not a crisis service
0808 802 5544Monday, Thursday and Friday 9:30am to 4pm. Tuesday and Wednesday 9:30am to 6pm
For parents and carers of children and young people under 25, anywhere in the UK. Webchat runs Monday to Friday 9:30am to 4pm, and there is email support at parents@youngminds.org.uk. YoungMinds are explicit that this is not a crisis service.
Association for Post Natal Illness (APNI)
London geographic number, not free
0207 386 086810.00am to 2.00pm Monday to Friday
The line is answered by trained volunteers who have themselves recovered from postnatal illness, which is exactly what some people want and a reason many callers value it. It is a small volunteer base, so you may not get through first time. This is a London geographic number, not freephone.
Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP)
No phone line Includes dads and co-parents
APP has no phone line. Their support is a moderated forum, one-to-one peer support by email, and café groups, including dedicated groups for dads and co-parents, which you can ask about at simon@app-network.org.
Postpartum psychosis is a medical emergency. Hallucinations, delusions, mania, confusion or rapidly changing moods, especially in the first two weeks after birth, need a same-day urgent GP assessment, or 999 or A&E if anyone is in danger. Peer support is not the route for this. As the NHS puts it, a mental health emergency should be taken as seriously as a physical one, and you will not be wasting anyone's time.
Dads, partners and non-birthing parents
UK research keeps finding the same barrier: fathers and non-birthing parents question whether they are even entitled to support, and worry about wasting a professional's time. So let us say it plainly. If you are the dad, the partner, the co-parent or the non-birthing parent, and you are struggling, that counts, and these services are for you.
Andy's Man Club
Free Men 18+ General line 01904 550055
There is no helpline. What there is: free peer-support groups meeting every Monday from 7pm, except bank holidays, with more than 350 groups plus online sessions. There is no charge and no booking, and you can simply turn up. Men 18 and over.
For anything urgent, Andy's Man Club themselves direct people to Samaritans, 111 or 999.
Music Football Fatherhood
Free Online community
An online community for dads. Free, with monthly peer sessions called "The Lodge" and the DaddyDebates podcast. Not a helpline, but a place where the conversation is already happening and nobody has to explain why it is hard.
DadPad
Not a charity Free only in some areas Not a helpline
A guide for new dads, in print and as an app. It covers recognising the signs of postnatal depression in both yourself and your partner.
Two things to be clear about. DadPad is a social enterprise product, not a charity. And it is free at the point of access only in areas that have commissioned it, so whether it costs you anything depends on your postcode. The number 07403 274757 is a business contact, not a support line: do not ring it in the small hours expecting help.
Dad Matters
Greater Manchester Check before relying on it
0161 344 0669 or 01204 216 537Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
Perinatal peer support for fathers, covering Greater Manchester. Other Dad Matters services around the country are run by separate local Home-Starts, so what is available depends on where you live.
Please treat this entry with caution. The legal entity is confirmed, but the Dad Matters website did not load for us on repeated attempts from two independent sessions. That may be a temporary problem or a local one. The phone numbers are worth trying, and if you cannot reach anyone, Home-Start's national site will point you to your local scheme.
Fatherhood Institute
Research organisation General line 01904 550055
The Fatherhood Institute is a research and policy think tank. It has no helpline and offers no support to individual parents. It appears on a lot of "support for dads" lists and it should not. If you are a dad who is struggling, the places to go are Andy's Man Club, PANDAS, APP's dads and co-parents groups, or Samaritans on 116 123.
Where this comes from
- Charity Commission register for England and Wales, every England and Wales charity number on this page.
- OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator, every SC charity number on this page.
- Cry-sis contact page, the Cry-sis number and hours, corroborated on the NHS colic page.
- The Lullaby Trust contact page, both Lullaby Trust lines and their hours.
- The Sleep Charity National Sleep Helpline, the helpline number, hours, call cost and the 12 month age rule.
- sleepaction.org and OSCR SC027560, the Sleep Action rename and the absence of a phone number.
- Coram Family Lives, the current number and hours, replacing the register's stale 24 hour wording.
- Gingerbread contact page, the helpline closure on 1 April 2025.
- Bliss support page, confirming there is no telephone helpline.
- National Autistic Society contact page, confirming there is no public helpline.
- Samaritans contact page, 116 123, call cost and availability.
- Babyzone Baby Buddy, where the Baby Buddy app went after Best Beginnings ceased to exist.
- Action for Children Parent Talk, the free online service that replaces the helpline people look for.
- OSCR SC027007, The Breastfeeding Network, behind the National Breastfeeding Helpline.
- Healthy Child Programme, health visiting ages 0 to 5, the five mandated reviews in England.
- NHS Best Start in Life, the renamed NHS parenting hub and its baby sleep section.
- Find a family hub, gov.uk, family hub coverage in England.
- NHS 24 and NHS inform, the Scottish phone routes.
- Parent Club, Scottish Government sleep information.
- 111 Wales, the Welsh phone route and its availability.
- Flying Start programme, Welsh Government, enhanced health visiting for under fours in some areas.
- nidirect GP out-of-hours service, every Northern Ireland area number and the confirmation that there is no 111 service.
- FamilySupportNI, the Northern Ireland services directory whose phone line costs 70p per minute plus access charge.
Last checked 1 August 2026. This page is general information, not medical advice. If you are worried about your child, speak to your health visitor or GP.