How we check our information

How sources are chosen

• NHS and statutory guidance is used for urgent routes, access to services and legal processes.
• NICE guidance is used where a page explains what assessment or care should normally include.
• Specialist UK charities are used for conversation, lived-experience and supporter guidance within the audience they serve.
• Commercial blogs, anonymous material and unsupported social-media posts are not used as health or safety sources.

The depression guide’s structure also draws on Mental Health First Aid Australia’s depression guidelines. UK NHS and statutory sources govern the help routes here; this is not an MHFA-endorsed publication.

How we avoid mixing incompatible advice

• Each high-risk page names a primary pathway.
• Advice for a limited group is labelled, for example under 18, under 35 or a particular UK nation.
• Information from different organisations is kept in separate sections when it serves different purposes.
• If sources appear to conflict, the guide follows current statutory or NHS guidance and does not attempt to create a compromise.
• Sources appear beside the relevant information or in numbered endnotes linked from it, so readers can check the original context.

Review timetable

• Every three months: urgent-help pages, crisis instructions, helpline details and high-risk guides.
• Every six months: other health, treatment, legal and service guidance.
• Earlier: whenever an official pathway, law, telephone number or cited source changes.

Each guide shows the date of its last full source check in its source section. Later checks of individual passages are listed separately there or beside the passage, with their scope and dates. Optional relationship advice has its own source-check date; it does not update the main guide’s date. Local listings, resource providers and tools show what was checked. The editorial history preserves the earlier records. Automated publication checks flag missing and overdue guide review dates, but a person must still compare the page with the current source.

What a source check includes

1. Open every cited source and confirm that it remains available.
2. Check that the page still says what Here for Someone attributes to it.
3. Confirm the audience, nation and age range.
4. Check telephone numbers and urgent routes separately.
5. Record material changes and the sources checked. Update the visible date after a full source check.

Checks on research articles

The research articles have not yet had every cited study independently checked against its original paper. That means a separate reviewer still needs to confirm the study methods, results, limitations and whether our summary is accurate. It is different from clinical review of the advice.

There is no confirmed completion date for that work. The notice on each article will remain until the checks are complete. Correcting a citation or checking one passage does not mean the whole article has been reviewed.

Research references link to original papers, journal records or official guidance where available. A university or funder’s announcement can describe a new project, but does not establish that its treatment works. Preprints are identified as such.

Clinical and legal limits

The guidance has not been clinically reviewed. Legal pages provide general information and link to current legislation or official guidance. They are not legal advice. Where specialist review is obtained in future, its scope and date will be stated precisely.

Corrections

If you find a broken link, outdated instruction, unclear audience or possible error, use the contact form. Safety-critical corrections are prioritised.

Independent information, not a medical or crisis service. This guidance has not been clinically reviewed. How we use sources.

Policy updated: 6 October 2026