This page lists organisations that won't call the police without your permission, or that have been designed from the ground up to avoid doing so.
The reason to start here rather than with 988 or 911 is not political. It is practical, and it is the reason this site exists.
If you are in crisis because you use a stigmatised substance, do sex work, or love someone who does — the emergency services, in most jurisdictions, are part of the architecture that made your crisis harder to talk about in the first place. Calling them can be the right choice. It can also introduce its own harms, especially if you are using criminalised substances, are a sex worker, are trans, are not a citizen, are Black or brown, are not out to your family, or live in a place where a welfare check brings a cruiser rather than a clinician. You are the one who can weigh these risks. This page exists so you have options to weigh against.
The reflex to treat distress as danger — and danger as something only authorities can answer — is the same reflex this site is trying to interrupt. Sarah Schulman names it in Conflict Is Not Abuse: we have learned to call for help in ways that override the person we are trying to help. The organisations below have been designed to refuse that reflex.
A note on scope: this list is weighted toward English-speaking, mostly US, some UK. We regret not yet having an organisation to point to for everyone who might need one. If you know a resource in your country or region that operates on the same principles, tell us and we will add it.
Peer support by and for trans and questioning people. Explicit no-active-rescue policy: they will not call emergency services without your request, even if you tell them you or someone else is in danger.
Peer-run by people with lived experience. You call before you use; an operator stays on the line; if you stop responding, they call EMS and report it as an 'unresponsive person' rather than an 'overdose' to reduce the chance of police being dispatched. They cannot guarantee no police. They have designed the service to minimise the risk.
Peer support centring BIPOC and LGBTQ+ callers, with an explicit anti-carceral stance.
Strong confidentiality posture. They do maintain safeguarding exceptions — they may contact an ambulance if a caller appears unable to make rational decisions for themselves, and may contact authorities if a child or adult at risk is identified. Not pure no-active-rescue, but the cleanest widely-available option in the UK and Ireland.
Committed to talking about suicide and mental distress without calling authorities or pathologising the speaker. Directory link to be added.
Peer-run, generally non-carceral, vary by state. warmline.org directs to the line serving your area.
If you are not in the UK, US, Ireland, or Canada, the organisations above will likely not be the right fit. Here is what to search for:
If you know a resource we should list —
tell us what it is, where it operates, and why it meets the criteria above. We will verify and add it. This list improves as people contribute.