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9-8-8 Service is Now Live in Canada

J_PM
Public Mobile
Public Mobile

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 

36 REPLIES 36

Leavin
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

If you need to chat with someone, call 9-8-8. If it's an emergency, call 9-1-1.

Robert01
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Do they trace call and send help if needed? 

 

Ferniie88
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

I need help. Is someone out there can help me please?

888rjw
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Is there a way to test that service. 

Do you have to be on the edge to call... 

RB83
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Seems to me there had been a 1-800 #

MacTuck3r
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Wonderful initiative, so many people need an ear to talk to during these tough days.

eeners
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Thanks for announcing this. An important initiative that everyone should know about. Glad the importance of mental health is being recognized. 

Gianni55555
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

That is a great feature as 1 in every 4 suffer from mental health and certainly a great feature ..keep positive things going 

Jamesdu
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

This will hopefully help many people 

HunterWolf
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

This is good information to share, but who’s to say how effective it may be, or how helpful the people on the line may be given the strain and stress everyone has been under 

Bozoo
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Well done! 

nudgeme_15
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

988, this is excellent news..much needed in a country like Canada 🇨🇦 

Tayykayy
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Way to go! This is awesome

joe_df
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I think this is a great step forward! 👍

Raj12
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

This a great help. A ray of hope during distress. No one is alone here

colee
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Didn't the line already exist, and the new number is just shorter? I remember seeing posters about it.

ScoobySnax
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

I truly hope you are feeling sooo much better now. It’s hard. Take care!

ScoobySnax
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

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

NorthernLights
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

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

Damagexox
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

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

BrittanyT
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

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 

smh_23
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

So glad to hear about this!

AlysonO
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Happy to hear about this and spread the word

Dbl_cheese_burg
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

This is a great addition!

Korth_
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@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

HabsFan
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

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.

Mohand_2024
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

nouvelle très importante pour  le soutien en santé mentale.

porcupine
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

great news 

BlaineGibson
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

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

lawalvin
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

great news

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