Volunteer Emotional Support Helplines

Volunteer Emotional Support Helplines (VESH) is a planned combined international network of telephone counseling services being formed by the 3 largest international services (Befrienders/Samaritans, IFOTES & Lifeline). In their roles of emotional support service networks, they have agreed to develop a more effective and robust international interface.

VESH represents 1200 member centres in 61 countries. Their goal is to ensure maximum access to effective services for people in distress [1]. They agreed to:

Together, the VESH partners have around 1,200 member centres in 61 countries. They have outlined a commitment to information sharing and joint activities. Part of this includes annual meetings and quarterly telephone conferences to plan and implement collaborative projects.

At the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) Congress in Ireland in 2007, VESH members

In 2002 IFOTES, LifeLine International and Befrienders International (and later adopted by Befrienders Worldwide) signed a Memorandum of Understanding - with a view to maximising joint impact in terms of emotional support services.

Since then a number of joint initiatives have been undertaken including joint platforms at international conferences of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and joint involvement in planning for the suicide themed World Mental Health Day 2006, a European Single Number project (116 123) and European Green Paper on Mental Health.

VESH members each represent counselling services in multiple countries.

Befrienders worldwide is now run by Samaritans, who took on the work of Befrienders International in 2003. They have members worldwide.

Founded in 1967, IFOTES brings together National Associations of Telephone Emergency Services, mainly from Western Europe, along with Israel and some Eastern European countries

Lifeline International is run by Lifeline Australia. Member organisations are from countries in the Asian & Pacific Islands region, some African nations, and Canada and the USA.

Members recognize the enormous common ground between them and feel there would be great advantage in having an international network within 5–10 years, to which all members would belong. This would be something along the lines of an ‘International Network of Emotional Support Services’.

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