1737 Need to talk? is New Zealand’s national mental health and addictions service. It’s completely free to call and text and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
| Who is the 1737 service for?
Anyone feeling stressed, anxious, worried, depressed, down or overwhelmed can call or text 1737 to connect with a trained counsellor. The service is also available for people who are worried about a friend or whānau member and the team offers advice on mental health or addiction issues.
1737 offers brief one-on-one counselling support, helping people with issues they’re immediately facing.
| Who is at the other end of the phone?
A team of trained counsellors. They are based in three offices around Aotearoa – Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch – and many work from their homes, located across the motu (country).
It is a culturally diverse team – more than 20% of its team are Māori or Pasifika and they have access to 150 languages through interpreter services.
| 1737 Peer Support
People looking for mental health support also have the option of speaking to someone with lived experience of raruraru hinengaro (mental distress) when they call 1737 Need to talk?
The free peer support service is available by phone between 2pm and 10pm. It is an addition to the phone and text support from trained 1737 counsellors already on offer 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
| What are the key themes from people contacting 1737?
Since the Government’s Level 4 lockdown announcement on 17 August, we are hearing from people experiencing mental distress around ongoing lockdown anxiety and isolation, distress over boundary exemptions, ongoing uncertainty regarding work and school / university, and relationship issues.
We give support to people contacting us for right-here-right-now, offering a range of advice, particularly encouraging them to be easy on themselves and those around them.
Read the full September newsletter.