The Maytree Respite Centre

Who we are

About Maytree

We’re open to suicidal feelings

Maytree’s house is open 365 days a year for people when they’re feeling suicidal.

Maytree is a national registered charity

Maytree is a national registered charity. We provide a unique residential service for people in suicidal crisis so they can talk about their suicidal thoughts and behaviour. We offer a free 4 night, 5 day one-off stay to adults over the age of 18 from across the UK. Our aim is to provide a safe, confidential, non-medical environment for our guests. Somewhere our guests can explore their thoughts and feelings, and feel heard with compassion and without judgement.

Maytree remains unique.  

This year we want to open a second house in Manchester.

How we work

Founded in 2002, our service runs 365 days a year. A small staff team and our volunteers spend many hours with each guest during their stay, providing the opportunity for them to explore their thoughts and feelings.

Initial contact and assessment

The first contact that people have with Maytree is by phone or email. From the first conversation, we aim to build a relationship of trust with the caller. We gently encourage them to talk about their suicidal thoughts and background history over the course of a few befriending calls with the aim of exploring and deciding together whether a stay at Maytree is right for them.

During these conversations, our callers can sometimes begin to discover a way forward for themselves and no longer feel that a stay at Maytree is what they need at this time. Sometimes a person will go on to arrange a stay with us. Other callers after a few conversations will go on to have an assessment.

Maytree is committed to supporting people at moments when they’re feeling suicidal and we aim to offer as many people who feel they would benefit from a stay the opportunity to do so. However, due to a person’s medical needs or specific life circumstances it is not always possible to do so. We do all we reasonably can to provide individuals to whom we cannot offer a stay information and contact details of organisations and services providing practical help and support.