Kids Helpline

Help Stop Youth Suicide

About Us

Kids Helpline is a free, 24 hour counselling service for young people aged 5-25 years. Counselling is offered by phone, email and over the web.

Counsellors respond to more than 6,000 calls each week about issues ranging from relationship breakdowns and bullying, to sexual abuse, homelessness, suicidal thoughts, and drug and alcohol use.

The service aims to empower young people by assisting them to:

• Develop options
• Identify and understand the consequences of a particular course of action
• Facilitate more productive relationships with family and friends, and
• Provide information on local support services.

Kids Helpline counsellors are fully qualified professionals who undergo additional accredited training at Kids Helpline.

Kids Helpline is a service of BoysTown

Who We Are

Kids Helpline officially opened on 25 March, 1991. More than 3,200 young people called the first day, and despite a number of hitches 122,000 calls were logged in the first 17 days.

Within a year of opening, Kids Helpline had answered 75,000 calls - this is the GABBA sporting ground filled twice! By Child Protection Week in October 1993, it had registered one million calls.

Kids Helpline expanded state by state across Australia, and became a national service in 1993. Email counselling started in 1999 and the web counselling service was launched in May 2000.

Since 1991, Kids Helpline has answered more than 5.2 million telephone calls and online contacts.

Kids Helpline is a part of BoysTown - a charity established by the De La Salle Brothers.