The campaign against living miserably (CALM) exists to prevent male suicide in the UK.

"Our Helpline: We offer confidential, anonymous and free support, information and signposting to men anywhere in the UK through our helpline. Calls are taken by paid, trained staff who work exclusively on the CALM helpline

Our Website: www.thecalmzone.net is a lively website with articles to inspire, support and entertain as well as promote the activities of our supporters. We have a team of young men who regularly write articles, interviews and music and film reviews for the website. The site also contains articles and a database of agencies via which we signpost visitors directly to other agencies who can help."

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST LIVING MISERABLY, or CALM, is a registered charity, which exists to prevent male suicide in the UK. Male suicide accounts for 77% of all suicides here and is now the single biggest cause of death in men aged 20 – 49 in England and Wales.

PREVENTING MALE SUICIDE

We seek to prevent male suicide by:-

Offering support to men in the UK, of any age, who are down or in crisis via our helpline and website.
Challenging a culture that prevents men seeking help when they need it, see www.yearofthemale.com
Pushing for changes in policy and practice so that suicide is better prevented via partnerships such as The Alliance of Suicide-prevention Charities (TASC), the Samaritans Call to Action. CALM also hosts the Suicide Bereavement Support Partnership, (which includes Cruse, If U Care Share, Papyrus, SoBS and the Samaritans amongst others). This partnership aims to ensure that everyone bereaved or affected by suicide is offered and receives timely and appropriate support. Its members are working collaboratively to ensure this vision becomes a reality.
OUR VALUES

We believethat if men felt able to ask for and find help when they need it then hundreds of male suicides could be prevented. We believe that there is a cultural barrier preventing men from seeking help as they are expected to be in control at all times, and failure to be seen as such equates to weakness and a loss of masculinity.
We’re a campaign for all men, not just ‘service users’. All of us, at one time or another regardless of gender, will hit a crisis and so we could all do with specialist support when things go wrong.
We aren’t here to represent health professionals or the mental health industry. CALM is about, for and on behalf of men. We use young men’s peers, their voices and interests to reach them. We seek to work with clubs, venues and brands with voices that men respect, feel comfortable with and trust to get our message across.
OUR FUTURE

We want to forge partnerships within music, entertainment, sports and comedy to help us with our promotion and advertising, as well as potential brand partners who can help underpin our campaign. By using music and entertainment to promote our message we create a brand that is attractive to our audience and potential supporters. In return we get a fantastic amount of pro-bono support from talented creative agencies and individuals who collectively help us raise awareness of the issue and our social message.

WHAT WE DO

1. HELPLINE SERVICE

We are a national charity and our helpline takes calls from across the UK. Our helpline service is open 5pm-midnight every day of the year. Calls are confidential and anonymous. Calls are taken by trained and skilled helpline workers who provide support, information and signposting to callers. We signpost to national agencies unless the caller lives within a CALMzone (see below), in which case we are able to signpost to local agencies. This service is caller led, confidential and anonymous. The helpline is operated on behalf of CALM by the Community Interest Company. Callers can also access the same service via text.