Q. Are you a telephone counselling service?

A. We are not a counselling service, counselling services are somewhat different, and you can read more about what counselling is here: http://www.bacp.co.uk/

Q. Are you the same as The Samaritans?

A. We’re not the same as The Samaritans. We provide a listening service that is similar, but we are aimed at students in higher education and are open overnight when many help lines are often closed.

Q. Why are you only open at night?

A. We open at night as many other services are closed; also many people find that those around them that they may otherwise talk with are unavailable at night.

Q. Are all the volunteers students?

A. Our volunteers are all students as the service is aimed at students. As students ourselves, we may be more aware of the difficulties that students face.

Q. Do you give advice?

A. Whilst we understand that it can be helpful for some people to receive guidance, we don’t provide advice as we believe that each individual is best placed to make their own decisions.

Q. Do I have to be suicidal or depressed to call Nightline?

A. Our callers talk to us about many different things that are troubling them, such as relationships, academic difficulties and for information such as a taxi company number. Sometimes calls can be about depression or suicide, but you don’t have to be experiencing either of these things in order to contact Nightline.

Q. My English is not very good, how can I use the service?

A. We understand that in a multi-cultural city like London there are many students for whom English is not their first language. For this reason we provide an email service and an instant messaging service for those that may find it easier to contact us in writing.

Q. Do you see people face to face?

A. In order to maintain the anonymity of the service, we do not feel it is appropriate to see people face to face.

Q. My university’s term dates are different to Nightline’s, why is this?

A. We try our best to include all university dates within our opening times, but it can be very difficult to accommodate all of them.

Q. Is the nightline number a free-phone number?

A. The nightline number is a standard landline contact number. If you wish you can contact us for free, you can do via Skype, email, or our online listening service on the website. We can call you back on a landline telephone number if you are low on credit.