Use our chatbot
If you are in an emergency, please call 999
If you’re worried someone might be monitoring your devices, exit this site and visit from a safe device. Learn more about keeping your technology safe here.
Click on the circle at the bottom right to get started
We understand it can be difficult to pick up the phone. You can use Refuge's chat service to talk to us online. Our expert, all-female Helpline team are available online, in confidence Monday to Friday 10am-10pm and 10am-6pm on weekends. You can also search for information about your rights and options.
Before using the Helpline’s live chat service, think about whether the phone, computer or tablet you are using can be seen by anyone else – especially the person you want to chat about. This might be because they are in the same room as you, or because you think they might be monitoring what you do on your device.
If you have any worries about the privacy of the device you’re currently using, you should:
- Write on a piece of paper you can hide somewhere safe the following web addresses – www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk and refuge.org.uk and the number of the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, 0808 2000 247.
- Click the exit button on the bottom right of the page to leave this site quickly.
- Call us on the Helpline, or access the above websites on a device you know is safe. You can find instructions for keeping your device private on our Tech Safety Tool (available in English, Urdu, Spanish and Polish).
How can Live Chat support me?
We can provide emotional support and information on your rights and options over live chat. However, we cannot provide referrals to refuges. If you need refuge, you can call our Helpline on 0808 2000 247
You may be placed in a queue for the live chat service – we do get very busy, and will get to you as soon as we can.
In an emergency, please call 999.
Frequently asked questions
Online, we can chat about what you’re going through and you can ask us any questions you like. We will not judge you or tell you what to do. It doesn’t matter whether you are still with the person you want to talk to us about, or whether you have left. You may even have left many years ago. Or maybe you’re not sure whether what you’re experiencing is abuse. Whatever your situation, we are here for you. Our Helpline online team can take you through your rights and options, refer you to specialist services (apart from refuges), and support you to think about your safety and the safety of any children. We cannot make referrals to refuges on live chat. If you are seeking refuge, or if you are planning to leave your abusive partner, please call us, any time of the day or night, on 0808 2000 247. If it is an emergency, call 999.
Refuge’s live chat service is confidential. We won’t share any information you give us with a third party unless you ask us to. The only exception to this is where there is a serious risk of harm to you or others, or where a child is believed to be at risk of harm, when we may have to share information without your permission.
The chat platform Refuge uses is secure. That means only you and the Helpline team can read the content of the messages being sent. There is one important exception: some perpetrators of abuse find ways to monitor what their partners are doing online in ‘real time’. For example, by installing spyware onto a woman’s device. If you suspect anyone else can see what you are doing on the device you are currently using, you should not use the live chat service. Instead, call us on a phone you know is safe on 0808 2000 247. If you have another device you know is secure, you can read more about how technology might be used to abuse and control, and use Refuge’s Tech Safety Tool, which gives instructions on keeping your devices private.
Once the chat is finished, or if you use the exit button at any point during your chat with us, it will be deleted from the chatbot. It will be stored temporarily on our secure system, only members of the Helpline team will be able to access it. We would not recommend taking screenshots of photographs of your chat with us and storing them on your device as this may not be safe.
With your permission, we will make some notes about the chat and store them on Refuge’s confidential database, in keeping with Refuge’s privacy policy.
You will be chatting with one of our expert, female Helpline team members. The same women who pick up the phones on our National Domestic Abuse Helpline.
Your chat will only be stored very briefly on our system. If you are seeking evidence of your conversation with us, you can request a copy of the notes we write during our chat with you, which will be kept on Refuge’s secure database. You will need to email helplinerecords@refuge.org.uk and verify your identity before we release your notes, for your safety. This will involve a telephone call with you directly.
What is it like to contact the Helpline?
We are a team of highly-trained female advisers
We won’t judge you or tell you what to do; we are here to listen.
We will empower you
We will empower you to understand your options and support you to make any decisions about the future.
We can support you to increase your safety
We can help you find a refuge space or other specialist services.
We can talk in confidence
We can talk in confidence in many different languages, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for as long as you need.