topic Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada in Announcements

9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

J_PM — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:19:24 GMT

Hello Community,

We have an important announcement to share. Starting today, the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline is now available across Canada.

Canada’s 98-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline is a new three-digit helpline that provides urgent, live support by phone and text to people in every province and territory across the country. 9-8-8 is for anyone thinking about suicide, or worried someone they know. Trained 9-8-8 responders will answer calls and texts and listen without judgement while providing support.

Spread the word about 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline and ensure this critical support is accessible to all.

- The Public Mobile Team

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

hTideGnow — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:20:46 GMT

Yes, I heard it on the news today. Great service and hope it will help those who needs it

Thanks PM for part of it.

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

Handy1 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:23:15 GMT

@J_PM That’s great news thanks for sharing:)

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

hairbag1 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:45:06 GMT

@J_PM

with the hectic weekend the CSA's had...make sure they know about 9-8-8.

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

Tornow1500 — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 19:30:46 GMT

Honestly, I think that this service should be available without the need of a SIM card, similar to 9-1-1.

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

ElegantTomato — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 03:19:12 GMT

This is great news!

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

Gwanzi — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 21:27:09 GMT

thanks for your efforts!

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

lawalvin — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:15:18 GMT

great news

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

BlaineGibson — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 16:14:04 GMT

This is indeed a pivotal development and a much-needed resource for mental health support in Canada.

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

porcupine — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 17:03:20 GMT

great news

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

Mohand_2024 — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 15:30:03 GMT

nouvelle très importante pour le soutien en santé mentale.

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

HabsFan — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:44:04 GMT

Au Québec, les appels au 9-8-8 seront redirigés vers la ligne d’intervention gouvernementale déjà existante, soit la ligne 1-866-APPELLE et suicide.ca.

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

Korth_ — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 01:05:26 GMT

@Tornow1500 wrote:
Honestly, I think that this service should be available without the need of a SIM card, similar to 9-1-1.

9-8-8 and 9-1-1 are Emergency Services numbers. Their calls are prioritized before any other calling traffic.

9-1-1 (now E911) automatically triggers location-requests on the device (and the 911 operator can send an override signal to enable location regardless of software settings if deemed necessary). The cellular network itself constantly triangulates, tracks, and monitors active phone locations with good accuracy as part of its normal function anyhow (the cellular radio network itself has to constantly know where the phone is physically located to actually provide any service, lol, even if the phone software pretends that the user's location can't be discovered).

But I don't know if 988 also provides the location service. And I suspect that 988 counselling/conversation sessions on the phone can be quite lengthy, so they might have a way to de-prioritize calls-in-progress back down to "normal" subscriber traffic. The emergency channels are dedicated to emergency communications, you don't want to lock them up with somebody's hours-long tearful conversation when somebody else needs to dial 911.

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/988.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

Dbl_cheese_burg — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 15:46:10 GMT

This is a great addition!

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

AlysonO — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 20:24:24 GMT

Happy to hear about this and spread the word

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

smh_23 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 15:59:30 GMT

So glad to hear about this!

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

BrittanyT — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 21:17:51 GMT

That’s awesome needs this for our people in Canada everyone struggles and are scared to reach out but with numbers it’s a lot better to get help

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

Damagexox — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 03:55:06 GMT

That is fantastic, I know from personal experiences that I could have used that once or twice. What a great idea and program! Congrats!

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

NorthernLights — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 02:00:40 GMT

Great service! I used to work a crisis line- there’s a lot of people who need help.

Re: 9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

ScoobySnax — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 16:27:09 GMT

This is so important and so necessary. Hopefully hold times aren’t too long.