On 21 September 2001, counselling service 0800 What’s Up answered its very first phone call. Twenty-one years on, or close to 1.5 million answered calls and over 29,000 answered chats later, Barnardos’ 0800 What’s Up helpline is needed now more than ever.

0800 What’s Up was created to offer a service which didn’t exist at the time: the possibility for tamariki and rangatahi to talk to a trained counsellor over the phone. In order to thrive, tamariki and rangatahi need to feel listened to, safe and valued. To this day, 0800 What’s Up remains the only helpline in Aotearoa offering free counselling service to children and young people from 5-19 years.

“Helplines play an important role in the continuum of support and care for people experiencing mental distress and poor mental wellbeing. Our early intervention approach means that we focus on helping build resilience, empowering children and young people by supporting them to solve their own problems, providing tools and strategies before things get too hard,” explains Jo Harrison, Barnardos General Manager Child and Family Services.

After 21 years of answering calls and chats, our trained counsellors know and understand the complex and evolving issues that are affecting tamariki and rangatahi, such as mental health and wellbeing, suicidality, relationship issues, self-harm, bullying and family violence.

“We know that Aotearoa is experiencing a child and youth mental health and wellbeing crisis, and the services to support these are oversubscribed and struggling to meet the needs. The impact of COVID-19 on health, education, and employment uncertainty, as well as the rising costs of living, housing affordability, and other global factors at play means that the world our children and young people are growing up in is full of distressing and difficult challenges. This is why, 21 years on since that very first phone call, 0800 What’s Up is needed more than ever, for the early intervention work we do, but also supporting our tamariki and rangatahi when things can seem very bleak ” says Jo Harrison.

Over the years, our helpline has kept young people at the centre of our approach. In 2014, 0800 What’s Up was the first helpline in Aotearoa to introduce a web chat service for tamariki and rangatahi. The ability for young people to have regular and recurring counselling sessions with the counsellor of their choice is unique aspect of 0800 What’s Up which directly responds to the needs of children and young people.

“On the day of 0800 What’s Up’s birthday, Barnardos wishes to thank all the people who have allowed the service to run over the years – our staff, funders, corporate partners, donors, as well as the young people themselves who have had the courage to call us or jump online and reach out. This is an incredible milestone, which we couldn’t have reached without all the people involved. Thank you all,” says Jo Harrison.

NOTES

About Barnardos

Barnardos is Aotearoa’s national children’s charity. We work across child and family social services, early childhood education, and systemic advocacy for children and young people.

Our vision is an Aotearoa where every child shines bright. We want every child in New Zealand to develop and reach their full potential.

We tackle the hard stuff – family poverty and income inequality, family violence and abuse, mental health and wellbeing, equal access to early childhood education, and lack of the basics such as safe and healthy housing.

About 0800 What’s Up

0800 What’s Up is one of the services offered by Barnardos. It is Aotearoa’s only national children’s helpline. Young people can reach out through our phone or via chats, from 11am-11pm, seven days a week, via www.whatsup.co.nz or 0800 942 8787.

Key facts:

- Over the 21 years of service, 0800 What’s Up has answered almost 1.5 million call and answered over 29,000 chats.

- The most common topics young people call about are mental health and wellbeing struggles, bullying, suicide, loneliness, depression, anxiety, relationships and family issues. Children can call about anything at all - they don’t have to wait until crisis point to call and talk things over.

- Since merging with Kidsline in January 2021, 0800 What’s Up is now the only national helpline of its type for those aged 5-19 nationwide.

- In 2014, 0800 What’s Up was the first helpline in Aotearoa to introduce a web chat service for tamariki and rangatahi.

- The e-chat counselling sessions take an average chat time of 28 minutes compared to 6 minutes for the phone calls. The average time spent with callers and chatters has increased significantly and the seriousness of the issues discussed in a chat has also been highlighted.

- In 2021, we saw a 31 percentage increase in e-chat demand at 0800 What’s Up, in part because of the pressures of Covid-19 but also because of the increased wait times for other mental health services around New Zealand.

- In 2022 the issue of bullying tends to be overshadowed by the growing mental health and wellbeing related issues children and young people are experiencing. However it is not an issue that has disappeared.

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