Canada’s 988 hotline, which gives people access to suicide prevention services via call or text, went live on Thursday.
People in every province and territory who are experiencing a mental health crisis and need immediate, real-time support can use the three-digit number.
This is actually terrific news! Before this, every province had their own suicide hotline which were understaffed and so poorly supported that I wonder if they didn’t cause more suicides than prevent them!
A friend of mine had called them 4x between a three month span during 2021 and only got through to one helpful person. The rest were hang ups, or under qualified staff (he said one of the counsellors spent the entire time talking about his experience on the job and how hard it was).
If this is properly funded and they have qualified staff, I think it’ll make a real impact!
I had to call to help someone that was in the process of spiraling down, cutting themselves and mixing benzos and alcohol and needed advice to help them urgently, that was a couple years ago. I never got through, sometimes it didn’t even ring, instant failed call.
Yeah same experience as my friend. He said one girl questioned whether he was really committing suicide and just hung up on him. I guess he didn’t sound distraught enough? To me I would have shut the whole system down but I guess it looked good on the surface and kept a few managers in a nice home.
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