Instant Messaging
Our Instant Messaging Service is just like texting someone.
You don’t have to tell us your name & you can chat about ANYTHING for as long (or as little) as feels right.
- Worries
- Feeling sad
- Loneliness
- Anger
- Anxiety
- Friends & friendships
- Family
- Relationships
- Panic attacks
- Feeling low
- Identity
- Sexuality
- Bullying
- Puberty
- Loss & bereavement
- Self-harm
- Suicidal thoughts & feelings
- Feeling different
- School
- Covid
- Emotional abuse
- Physical abuse
- Exams
- Good things that have happened
- ANYTHING
Starting a chat
Just visit this website (www.speakupspace.org.uk) & click on the 💬icon in the bottom right corner of your screen.
*This only appears when the service is open.
Tuesdays (6pm-8pm)
Wednesdays (6pm-9pm)
Thursdays (6pm-9pm)
When you click the 💬 icon you can start to type your message.
Most people start by saying any of the following:
- Hi
- Is anyone there?
- I don’t know what to say
- What can I talk about on here?
- Will you tell anyone what I say?
- I feel sad/worried/stressed/scared/anxious/angry etc
but you can say anything that feels right for you.
When you hit send you will be asked for your Nickname, Age & the Town you are from before it sends.
- A nickname helps us remember you if you come back for more chats.
- Your age helps us provide age-appropriate support to you.
- Your town helps us make sure we are supporting young people in different areas.
How long do chats last?
Most chats last about 45 minutes, but some last longer and some are even shorter. You can stop chatting whenever you want to.
Ending a chat
You can tell us that you’d like to end a chat at any time.
You are even allowed to leave the chat without telling us, for example if someone starts talking to you when you are chatting to us.
At the end of the chat, we might ask you some questions about you.
We ask you 3 questions at the end of your chat:
- What is the first half of your post code? Eg ST1, ST2 etc
- What is your Ethnic group? Eg White British, Black Caribbean, Indian etc
- What gender do you identify yourself as? Eg Female, Male, Transgender etc
You don’t have to answer any of these questions & we only ask them to make sure that we are supporting as many different groups within our community as we can.
During Busy Times
Everyone who works at SUS only chats to one person at a time to make sure that you get our full attention. As a result sometimes when we are busy you might not be able to talk to someone straight away.
- If we are busy and we can’t chat to you straightaway, you will get an automated message after a couple of minutes that says:
Automatic message
“All of our team are currently busy.
Please stay online and we will answer you as soon as we are free.
If you feel like your life or someone else’s is in danger please dial 999 for immediate help.”
- You can either wait until we are free to talk to you (this may take 30 minutes or more sometimes) OR you can try again a different time.
How often can I chat to SUS?
Remember that you can chat to us as many times as you would like to & our service is confidential.
When would we breach confidentiality?
Most of the time what young people tell us stays private.
The only time that we might need to tell someone else, like a health care professional would be if something that you told us left us believing that you or another young person were at immediate risk of harm. This doesn’t happen very often but if it did we would be honest with you and we would talk to you about sharing our concerns with other relevant professionals.