Your emotional wellbeing
Take an extra step to look after your emotional health and wellbeing
The NHS in Sussex is encouraging anyone struggling with stress, depression or other emotional wellbeing issues to access the wide range of support across the county.
Advice, support and help are on offer from a wide range of services for anyone experiencing emotional or personal problems. Services provide online help in groups or one-to-one, drop-in sessions or personal support with a specialist depending on your needs.
Help and advice is available from the services below:
Head Forward
Head Forward, run by Mind in Brighton and Hove, provides support and advice on more than 73 different topics, covering the symptoms of those topics, treatments, types of support and how to access that help. It also provides help for carers and health professionals.
The Big White Wall
People can join an online community and share their concerns and worries. By visiting the Big White Wall website, residents can access support from wherever they are, whether at home, at work, on their smart phone, or out in the community. It offers people the opportunity to talk with others who may be experiencing the same issues, and access 24/7 support and help for a range of mental health needs. The Big White Wall also provides specific support for veterans in West Sussex and across the country.
The Sussex Mental Healthline - 0300 5000 101
The Sussex Mental Healthline is a telephone service providing support and information to anyone experiencing mental health problems including stress, anxiety and depression. The service is also available to carers and healthcare professionals. Although the Sussex Mental Healthline is not a counselling service, all operators are prepared to listen and help callers to identify and clarify their immediate problems and to explore ways of coping or suggest alternative avenues of help.
The Samaritans
The Samaritans' aim to benefit society by improving people’s emotional health in order to create a greater sense of wellbeing. Apart from being a 24-hour source of support on the telephone, by email, by letter or face to face, they also work in the local community, visiting schools, prisons and workplaces.
The service is entirely confidential and Samaritan volunteers listen to anyone in any type of emotional distress, without judging or telling people what to do. They don’t offer advice, but encourage people who contact them to talk about their feelings so that they are able to help them explore all the options they have. Contact details for local branches are:
Bognor Samaritans - 13 Argyle Road, Bognor Regis, West Sussex – 01243 826333
Worthing Samaritans - 2 Lennox Road, Worthing, West Sussex – 01903 205555
Horsham and Crawley Samaritans – 21 Denne Road, Horsham, West Sussex – 01403 276276 / 01293 515151
West Sussex Wellbeing
Our local teams can help you with advice, support and information about local services. They can advise you on where you can get the best help to meet your needs.
Why is it important to ask for help?
Last year alone, over five million people in the UK contacted The Samaritans. Out of those people, nearly one million of them expressed some kind of suicidal feelings at the time of contact.
Locally, a survey of people aged 16-24 in West Sussex, reported that one in ten regularly felt depressed, with 8% admitting to have contemplated suicide.
In addition, a study looking at younger children in West Sussex also found out that only 59% of 10-15 year olds felt they had someone to talk to whenever something was worrying them.
We know that there are people out in the community across the county who are struggling to cope with their emotional or personal problems. We don’t want anyone going through that alone, especially as there is help available.
The local NHS works closely with a number of organisations to provide a range of services and help for anyone in West Sussex needing emotional support. The message is clear – if you need help please speak to someone about where you can get it.