Missing People Website

Message Home

We know that people go missing for many different reasons and often it is preceded by stressful situations, trauma, unhappiness, depression, financial worries, abuse, arguments, bereavement or domestic violence. Sometimes people leave because they just need some space or because they feel their family would be better off without them.

Message Home offers help, advice and support. It is a confidential service that can provide a vital link to those you have left behind.

If you feel unable to make direct contact with the people you have left behind, we can help by forwarding a message on your behalf to your family, carer or partner. We will only pass on this message and will not tell your family any other information. Your call cannot be traced.

Sometimes forwarding a message can open the lines of communication which may lead to you feeling able to make direct contact yourself. 

Message Home can also arrange a three-way call or conference call, where we can connect you through to your family or loved ones. We find that having someone else on the line can make it easier for you to talk. Again, these calls cannot be traced to you.

In addition, we can give you the opportunity to talk through what has happened. We can explore options with you for seeking other sources of help and support from our detailed resources of helplines and other services. For example, we can put you in contact with the statutory services if you think this would help.

Some missing people want to know if they have been reported missing to the police and others worry that they are in trouble with the police. If you want, we can arrange for you to talk to a police officer via a three-way call. This call cannot be traced and enables you to ask the questions you need to.

We aim to help everyone who needs help. All we need in order to pass on a message are the contact details of the person you want to contact, an agreed message and some identifying information about you so your family or loved ones know that it is definitely you we have spoken to. We will not pass on messages that we think may cause distress to the recipient or return messages to you that we think may be distressing.

You may prefer to contact the Message Home service by sending us an email. We will do everything we can to reply to you as soon as possible. Through email, we can try and pass a message to your family or give you advice and explore your options. Our email service is also confidential and as with phone calls, your emails cannot be traced.

Contact us in whichever way you feel most comfortable, but please remember, if you are in crisis or in an unsafe situation and need help immediately, then pick up the phone and call us in confidence.

Freefone 0800 700 740

messagehome@missingpeople.org.uk 

Message Home is a confidential service and we cannot trace your calls or emails. However, if we think you are at risk of serious harm, we may need to let someone else know – but we’d always work with you first, to get the help you want.

For more information on our confidentiality policy please email: services@missingpeople.org.uk

DISCLAIMER: For the purposes of training, calls to our helplines may be listened in to by additional members of staff. This also allows us to develop the quality of our services. All of our helpline staff and volunteers are bound by our confidentiality policy. Calls to all our helplines cannot be traced and are not recorded.