Three 24-hour helplines to be set up in support of children, adults

Malta will be joining an EU helpline network that allows children and adults in need of certain kinds of support to dial the same freephone number in any country within the bloc.

Calls for expression of interest have been issued to run three separate 24-hour helplines, all starting with the 116 code.

Two of the help lines are aimed at helping missing children or children in need of protection while the third seeks to offer support to adults.

Children's Commission Carmen Zammit welcomed the fact that the government had set the wheels rolling to set up the service. She stressed that it was now important that local children were informed about it.

The Justice Ministry issued a call for expressions of interest in running the 116 000 Missing Children Helpline service that will receive calls reporting missing children, pass on such reports to the police and offer guidance and counselling to people responsible for the missing child.

Another two calls were issued by the Social Policy Ministry. One was for the Emotional Support Helpline 116 123 intended for callers suffering from loneliness, in a state of psychological crisis or contemplating suicide. The 116 111 Child Helpline is intended to help children in need of care and protection and link them to services and resources.

The calls close on May 30. Spokesmen for the two ministries could not say when the services would come into operation or how much they would cost the government. Such details, they said, would be negotiated once the contracts were awarded.

In 2006 the European Commission proposed to reserve a common telephone number to report missing children and another for children to call for help. This followed the adoption of the EU strategy on the rights of the child. The following year the commission reserved 116 000 and 116 111 in all member states. A third number, 116 123, was later reserved for adult emotional support helplines.

The government's support agency, Appoġġ, currently runs a helpline, 179, which provides immediate, confidential support to callers of any age who require assistance both in day-to-day and crisis situations. It also provides information on social welfare services and referral systems to those callers who require further assistance.