Others have been reaching out with concerns about missed milestones, like prom and graduation, and some expressed self-esteem and body image issues earlier in the pandemic.
The main driver of calls, Simon said, has been isolation, with calls related to loneliness up 50 per cent from pre-pandemic rates. and 4 a.m., according to newly released data by Kids Help Phone. A majority call between the early hours of 12 a.m. Calls have been pouring in from children as young as five to young adults as old as 28, mainly to seek help for their mental and emotional health.Īlmost half of the calls come from Ontario, followed by Alberta and British Columbia. Still, the volume of calls is unlike anything Kids Help Phone has experienced since its inception in 1989. “We’re always training new crisis responders.” “We’re always hiring because we want to make sure that we have enough front-line staff to be able to meet demand,” Simon said. Kids Help Phone has also been able to train 4,200 volunteers to respond to texts from teens in distress this year alone, Simon said. It’s a cascade of calls for help that 182 counsellors across the country, from Toronto to Vancouver, have had to answer from their own homes as they too have been confined to pandemic-mandated lockdown measures.īut the crisis line said they’ve been able to keep up with demand, with 50 additional counsellors to be hired by the end of the year, thanks to new federal funding. Kids Help Phone now receives more than 800 calls and texts for help from children and youth across the country daily - about 10 of which are active suicide rescues where police are called for backup, said Kids Help Phone’s senior vice-president of innovation Alisa Simon.
Under the pandemic, that number has more than doubled. In 2019, the youth crisis hotline received 1.9 million calls, texts, and clicks on their online self-directed resources for help.
Young Canadians have reached out to Kids Help Phone more than 4 million times in 2020, signalling a sharp uptick in calls for help compared to previous years and a growing chorus of youth who continue to struggle under the COVID-19 pandemic.