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As of 13 August 2026, AI can find free mental health support in the UK.
Most people should hand this to a purpose-built tool.
Can you do it?
5 minutesto a draft.
15 minutesto something you’d act on.
Cost, all in£0
Skill needednone
Who has to check ityou
What the alternative costsWysa provides AI wellbeing support with evidence-based self-help exercises; the supplied information does not state its price.
If this goes wrong, you may spend time on an unavailable or unsuitable service and delay contacting the right urgent route.
What to actually do
Use a tool built for this
The route this page recommends
Do it yourself
Second choiceA chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 15 minutes until you can act on the result.
How to actually do it
- Open a chatbot and paste the prompt, replacing the bracketed slots with your town or postcode area, contact preference and a brief non-identifying description.
- Ask the chatbot to separate NHS, local authority, charity and peer-support options, and to leave out any service whose cost or eligibility it cannot verify.
- Open every NHS.uk, 111.nhs.uk, GOV.UK or provider link in the answer and compare the service name, contact method, eligibility, opening information and cost with the current page.
- If your symptoms feel urgent or worrying, use NHS 111 through 111.nhs.uk or call 111 instead of waiting for a non-urgent service to reply; call 999 or go to A&E if there is immediate danger.
- Choose one verified route and send the drafted message, adding only the personal information the service asks for through its own secure contact method.
- If the first service is unavailable or unsuitable, use the next verified option and keep NHS 111 as the route for urgent concerns.
Prompt
Help me find free mental health support in the UK. I am in or near [town or postcode area], I prefer [phone, text, online chat, face-to-face or no preference], and my situation is [brief non-identifying description]. Treat this as a signposting task, not diagnosis or treatment. Give me a short list of relevant services, stating what each offers, who can use it, how to contact it, whether it appears free, and what I should check before relying on it. Use current official UK sources where possible, especially NHS.uk, 111.nhs.uk and GOV.UK, and include the source page for each important claim. Do not invent opening hours, eligibility, prices or availability. If I mention immediate danger, thoughts of suicide, serious self-harm, psychosis, or symptoms that feel urgent or worrying, put NHS 111 at the top and tell me to use the NHS 111 website or call 111, and to call 999 or go to A&E if there is immediate danger. Do not diagnose me. End with a simple message I can send to the service I choose, without including sensitive personal details.
Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.
Hand it to a person
The distant thirdA person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.
What it gets wrong
- AI cannot guarantee that a service is currently open, accepting new people or free for your circumstances.
- AI cannot assess your mental health or diagnose what is happening.
- AI cannot replace NHS 111 when symptoms are urgent or worrying.
- AI cannot know which service will feel safe, accessible or suitable for you without your judgement and a conversation with the provider.
- AI cannot make contact or advocate for you if a service does not respond.
Even on a YES, the friction has a name: real time truth, stakes of error and context depth.
How we scored this
Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.
| Axis | Score (0–2) |
|---|---|
| Output | 2 |
| Inputs | 2 |
| Verification | 1 |
| Liability | 1 |
| Effort delta | 2 |
| Total | 8 / 10 |
The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.
FAQ
- Can AI find me free mental health support near me?
- Yes. It can make a location-based shortlist of UK services and draft questions or a message, but you must check each service's current eligibility, availability and cost. Use NHS 111 through 111.nhs.uk or by calling 111 for urgent or worrying symptoms.
- Is free mental health support available on the NHS?
- The NHS provides mental health support and routes into services, but the right option depends on your circumstances and location. Check current information on NHS.uk and confirm the route directly with the service.
- What should I tell an AI about my mental health?
- Give it only broad, non-identifying information such as your area, preferred contact method and whether the situation feels urgent. Do not paste names, addresses, NHS numbers, passwords or detailed private records, and do not use it for diagnosis.
- What if I need mental health help urgently?
- Use NHS 111 through 111.nhs.uk or call 111 for urgent or worrying symptoms. If there is immediate danger, call 999 or go to A&E rather than waiting for an online service or chatbot.
Nearby answers
Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.
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