By Carl BR Johnson
June 27, 2013
A mental health program has secured funding for another year.
The Crisis Line Association of B.C. (CLABC), had conflicting reports of its imminent closure.
The 1-800-SUICIDE and 310 Mental Health Support Line networks are the helplines that the CLABC supports for those in need, and are available throughout the Peace Region.
Conflicting reports from the CLABC have stated the network may have been in danger of shutting down. However, the group has secured funding that will see them through to March 31, 2014, according to a statement made by a CLABC board member. The province has allocated $120,000 to the CLABC.
Elizabeth Newcombe, treasurer and board member of the CLABC, said the news is, “a sigh of relief.”
“We can breath till March. The interim funding was pro-rated until March which is the end of the fiscal year.”
“I think it’s really positive news,” said Arden Smith, department manager for the South Peace Community Resources Society in Dawson Creek. “There are lots of vulnerable people out in the communities that don’t have a lot of service. I think it’s an important service.”
“We see this as good news,” said Tracy McLellan, northeast director for Mental Health and Addiction Services in Fort St. John. “Additional supports for individuals in crisis, and easy access points to that support, are always welcome.
“Northern Health’s mental health programs see this as another step in creating an integrated system of crisis services across B.C., and one that will allow individuals to call one number regardless of their location.”
The CLABC is a community network of 14 mental health help phone lines that have been set up across the province.
Newcombe said that the time until March will give their organization time to review the crisis lines in the province so they can look at how funding will continue after March.
She said that in addition to government departments, their funding comes from many different sources, including private companies and non-profit groups like the United Way.
“This money doesn’t go to a particular crisis line, it goes to the network itself,” she said.
She added that this money will go a long way to making sure that users don’t get a busy signal or get connected to voicemail when someone calls the suicide line.
Due to the nature of the situation people find themselves in when they call 1-800-SUICIDE, a busy signal could mean the difference between life and death.
“Our system is aiming for a ‘no call goes unanswered’ goal,” she said. “It’s very important when 1-800-SUICIDE is on the bridges, and someone is thinking of jumping and they’re calling that number, you do not want them to get a busy signal.”
According to the CLABC, the Lions Gate Bridge Project was the first of its kind in Canada to provide phones on the landmark bridge itself in Vancouver, to allow users to directly access the 1-800-SUICIDE crisis line centres.
In 2004, B.C. was the first province in Canada to adopt the 1-800-SUICIDE line system after it originated in the U.S.A..
Newcombe added that the 1-800-SUICIDE number is accessible virtually everywhere in North America but local jurisdictions need to contribute to the network as well for its own people to access it.
“Unfortunately, the 1-800-SUICIDE line isn’t accessible everywhere in the country, but our network is trying to fix that. And with the cooperation of other crisis help centres we can do something about it,” she said.
The lines, 1-800-784-2433 line for suicide issues and 310-6789 for mental health support, both use routing technology to connect to the nearest health agent in the user’s area.
According to the University of Ottawa, 3,890 people in Canada took their own lives in 2009 – at a rate of 18 males per 100,000 and 5.3 females per 100,000.
They said the rate has been constant for the past decade and any increases would be due to natural population growth.
They also said data on attempted suicides are hard to come by because this is not recorded systematically, but they surmised that there may be 200 or so attempts per completed suicide. B.C. crisis lines provide more than 3.7 million minutes of support every year with a person connecting to a support worker every 2.7 minutes.
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