If you are in danger right now, don't wait for this page.
Lebona matching is done by people and takes 24–48 hours. That is too slow for a crisis. Call your national helpline, free, confidential, answered around the clock, or go to the nearest health facility. If you can, take someone with you.
Free, confidential, and answered by people
You do not need to be suicidal to call. Overwhelmed is reason enough. You can call about someone else, too.
Ethiopia
Mental health & suicide prevention line
24 hours, every day. Amharic, Afaan Oromoo, Tigrinya and English. Free from any network.
Ambulance & emergency medical services
Use this if there has been an injury or an overdose.
Violence against women & children
Support, safety planning and referral for domestic and gender-based violence.
Kenya
Befrienders Kenya / national mental health line
24 hours. Kiswahili and English. Free from any network.
Emergency services
Police, ambulance and fire. Also reachable on 112 and 911.
Gender violence recovery helpline
24-hour support and referral for survivors of gender-based violence.
Rwanda
Mental health & child protection line
24 hours. Kinyarwanda, English and French. Free from any network.
Ambulance (SAMU)
Emergency medical response, including after self-harm or overdose.
Isange One Stop Centre
Integrated support for gender-based violence, medical, legal and psychosocial.
Numbers are checked quarterly. If one of these does not connect, please tell us so we can correct it.
Where to go in person
Amanuel Mental Specialised Hospital
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia · Emergency 24h
Ethiopia's principal specialist mental health hospital. The right destination for acute crisis, psychosis and inpatient admission.
Zewditu Memorial Hospital, Psychiatry
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia · Outpatient, weekdays
Low-cost assessment and medication. Arrive early; bring a national ID if you have one.
Mathari National Teaching & Referral Hospital
Nairobi, Kenya · Emergency 24h
Kenya's national referral hospital for mental health, with emergency assessment and inpatient care.
Kenyatta National Hospital, Mental Health
Nairobi, Kenya · Outpatient & emergency
Psychiatric outpatient clinic and 24-hour accident and emergency department for acute presentations.
CARAES Ndera Neuropsychiatric Hospital
Kigali, Rwanda · Emergency 24h
Rwanda's main neuropsychiatric hospital, covering acute crisis, inpatient care and specialist psychiatry.
Isange One Stop Centres
Rwanda · Nationwide, 24h
Located at district hospitals across the country. Free medical, psychosocial and legal support under one roof.
Anywhere else in the region
Across Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda, district, zonal and general hospitals are required to provide mental health services through their outpatient departments. Ask at reception for the mental health or psychiatric nurse. If you are turned away, call your national line, 952, 1190 or 116, and say so. They will help you find an alternative.
If you are having thoughts of ending your life
These are not a treatment. They are a way to get through the next hour, which is all you have to do.
Put distance between you and the means
Give the pills, the rope, the weapon or the keys to someone else, or lock them away and post the key. Distance buys time, and time is usually what turns this around.
Tell one person, in plain words
"I am thinking about killing myself and I don't want to be alone." A friend, a relative, a neighbour, or your national helpline. You are not a burden for saying it. You are giving someone a chance to help.
Agree not to act for the next 24 hours
Not forever. Just today. Suicidal intensity comes in waves and almost always drops. Decisions made in the trough are made by the trough.
Do one small physical thing
Cold water on your face and wrists. Walk outside. Eat something. It sounds trivially small against what you are feeling; do it anyway, because it works on the body while the mind catches up.
Get to a hospital if the urge is rising
Emergency departments take this seriously and will not turn you away. Bring someone if you can. Call 907 if you cannot travel.
What to do when you're the one who noticed
Ask directly
"Are you thinking about killing yourself?" Asking does not plant the idea, every study on this has found the opposite. It gives permission to answer honestly, often for the first time.
Listen without fixing
Resist advice, silver linings and comparisons to others who have it worse. "That sounds unbearable, tell me more" does far more work than any solution you could offer in the first ten minutes.
Do not promise secrecy
Say instead: "I will not tell people who don't need to know, but I am not going to keep a secret that could cost your life." Then keep that promise exactly.
Stay, or hand over
Do not leave someone alone in an acute crisis. If you must go, hand them to a named person, not to "someone". Then follow up tomorrow, the day after is when most people stop checking.
Look after yourself too
Supporting someone through this is genuinely heavy. You are allowed to be affected by it, and you are allowed to get your own support. Our parents and carers circle exists for exactly this.
Know your limit
You are not their clinician and you cannot be on call indefinitely. The goal is to get them to professional help, not to become the professional help.
Make a safety plan before you need one
A safety plan is one page that answers four questions in advance: what my warning signs are, what helps, who I call, and where I go. Written on a good day, it does the thinking for you on a bad one. Our therapists build one with every client who wants it.
Lebona is not an emergency service and this page is not a substitute for medical care. Our matching is done by people and takes 24–48 hours. If someone's life is at immediate risk, call your national helpline or emergency number now, or go to the nearest hospital.