Depression.pk is free, confidential and non-judgemental. This page explains what that means in practice, what we do when somebody is at risk, and how to tell us if something here has gone wrong.
Nobody here is told to pray harder, snap out of it, or be grateful. You can say the thing you have not said out loud to anyone, exactly as it is, without being lectured about it.
What you say stays where you said it. No screenshots, no forwarding, nothing repeated with the names taken out. In this country a leaked disclosure gets people disowned, divorced or worse, and we treat it that seriously.
Somebody is responsible for what happens when a person is at risk, and there is a route to raise a concern that reaches a human the same day.
Nothing we do for the people who come to us costs them anything. Not the groups, the questions, the self-tests, the courses or the helplines. Nobody is ever asked for money, and nobody ever will be.
Volunteers and professionals know what they may and may not do here. No diagnosing in a message, no prescribing, no meeting someone alone because they asked.
Safeguarding is the work of noticing when somebody is at risk of harm and doing something about it, rather than hoping somebody else will. On a service like ours that means three things in practice: spotting risk early, responding the same day, and keeping a record so the response can be checked afterwards instead of taken on trust.
It applies to everyone: the people who come to us for help, the volunteers who answer them, and the professionals listed in our directory.
Everything you tell us is private. It is not shared with your family however worried they are, it is not shown to other members, and it is not used to sell you anything.
There is one limit, and we would rather you heard it now than found out later: if somebody is in immediate danger of losing their life, we act. That means staying with the person, giving them the emergency numbers, and telling the team so a human follows up. We will tell you we are doing it. We do not promise secrecy about somebody dying, because that is a promise nobody should make.
A message that suggests somebody may be about to harm themselves is treated as urgent. The person is answered, not handed a leaflet. They are given the emergency numbers, and the team is told the same day so somebody human checks on them.
Where the risk is less immediate, we respond more gently and we do not escalate over the person’s head. Proportionate is the word the profession uses, and it matters: treating every dark sentence as an emergency teaches people to stop writing dark sentences.
The professionals listed on this site have been through an approval process. We check their qualifications and, where their profession has a registering body, their registration number, before their name and photograph go on the site. Everybody who works with people in distress here confirms they are over 18.
They agree, in writing, to our safety and confidentiality rules before they are listed: no diagnosing in a message, no prescribing or changing anybody’s medication, no meeting somebody alone because they asked through us, and no selling inside the support groups.
We are not a clinical service and we do not supervise anybody’s practice. A professional you book works under their own responsibility, as they would in their own clinic.
Our WhatsApp groups are moderated. The rules are not bureaucracy: each one exists because of something that happened to a real person.
No images of self-harm or violence, of any kind, not even as a joke — a picture like that can be what tips somebody over on a bad night, and it is removed immediately. No private messaging members who have not said it is alright. No selling, links or promotion in a room people came to for help. No judging, labelling or lecturing. No religious or political argument — faith is welcome as comfort, never as a debate about who is right.
Moderation is graduated. Most of what happens is one quiet line naming the rule. Nobody is removed for a first mistake, and anybody who is removed can ask to come back and a person reads it.
If anybody on this platform makes you uncomfortable — a volunteer, a professional, an admin, or another member — tell us. You do not need evidence and you do not need to be certain. A concern is enough.
Write to hello@depression.pk and put SAFEGUARDING in the subject, or message any admin directly. It reaches a person, not a queue, and it is read the same day. We will tell you what we did about it.
Nothing you raise is posted in any group, ever, and raising it will not get you removed from anything.
We are not an emergency service and we are not a replacement for a doctor. Nobody here is watching a screen at four in the morning waiting for your message.
If you or somebody else is in danger right now, call 1122 or 15 in Pakistan, or go to the nearest emergency department. Our emergency page has the numbers.
Write to hello@depression.pk with SAFEGUARDING in the subject, or message any admin in the groups. A person reads it the same day and tells you what was done. You do not need proof, and nothing you raise is ever posted in a group.
This page describes how we actually work, not how we would like to sound. If you find something on this site that does not match it, that is a fault worth telling us about: hello@depression.pk.
