9-8-8, the new suicide crisis helpline, launched nationwide Thursday morning. In Quebec, nothing changes: calls to 9-8-8 will be automatically directed to 1-866-APPELLE, the government intervention line already in place.
Already, among the province’s suicide prevention services, the operation is closely monitored in the event of a technical problem or a significant increase in traffic.
“It is certain that in any change, there are certain risks involved,” concedes Claudia Charron, general director of the Regroupement des Centers de prevention du suicide du Québec (RCPSQ) in an interview with Duty.
The Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services affirms Duty having had “the guarantee” from the federal government that calls and texts to 988 will all be redirected to Quebec services as of Thursday.
“Everything has been done to do this, including several tests in recent months. Mechanisms have also been put in place in the event of difficulties in transferring text messages or calls to Quebec services,” indicates the ministry by email.
Claudia Charron believes that even if 9-8-8 is good news for the rest of Canada, it is important not to “create confusion with what already exists” in Quebec. The RCPSQ will therefore not promote the new federal service.
Last month, the interim president and CEO of the AQPS, Luc Massicotte affirmed that his organization would not boost its popularity either. However, he maintained that “no one is going to fall between two chairs from November 30”.
“We are working closely with representatives of the Quebec government and our plan is for calls to be automatically transferred to suicide prevention services in Quebec,” assured Eva Serhal, director of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, which oversees the new 9-8-8 service.
Already anticipating an increase in calls, the RCPSQ has already planned to double its workforce to meet demand in certain regions. “In light of the American experience, we can indeed expect that the volume of requests and calls will increase,” believes Mme Wheelwright.
American experience
The Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto is already looking at the experience of our neighbors to the south. “We learned a lot from our American counterparts, and that really helped inform our planning,” says Eva Serhal.
Already, the three-digit sequence was chosen since it is easily remembered and corresponds to the same suicide prevention number adopted in the United States last year.
Launched on July 16, 2022, the helpline has proven to be a great success. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 9-8-8 has received approximately 7 million calls, text messages and online chats since its launch.
A few days before the launch of the Canadian line, however, no exact forecast was established for potential ridership.
“Since 9-8-8 is a new service, we won’t know the actual numbers until it launches, but we have made projections of what we think the demand for 9-8-8 will be. Based on our estimates, we expect more than 30,000 calls and more than 10,000 SMS messages during this first month,” said M.me Serhal.
In the United States, the average call response time was 32 seconds in October. For text messages, however, the delay was close to 4 minutes.
Still little known
More than a year after its implementation in the United States, the call line is slow to become known among the population. According to a survey conducted this summer, 82% of Americans were unaware of the service, and more than two in five respondents said they don’t know what to do if a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis or considering suicide.
The director of the American helpline, Tia Dole, said, however, that the service should become more known in the coming months, as awareness campaigns expand in communities across the United States, as well as only through increased offerings such as Spanish text and chat service and services aimed at LGBTQ+ people.
For the Canadian version, we are already banking on access to several languages to increase its accessibility. It is said that Indigenous callers may be redirected to the Hope for Wellness Crisis Line, which offers support in Cree, Ojibwe and Inuktitut.
People who are deaf or hard of hearing can access an interpreter in ASL (American Sign Language) or LSQ (Language of Signs Quebec) through the Canadian Video Relay Service.
The Government of Canada has invested more than $158 million in this new line. The initiative dates back to December 2020, when Conservative MP Todd Doherty presented a motion to create such a national suicide prevention hotline. The House of Commons then adopted it unanimously.
The new helpline, which will allow Canadians to get help by phone or text in both official languages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.