It can feel overwhelming, living in the time of COVID-19, but mental health services in Calgary want you to know that help is available.
The Distress Centre is usually buzzing with volunteers each day. Now, the contact centre sits empty as 115 staff work from home. “In the 12 years that I’ve been at the Distress Centre and the 50 years that we’ve been around, this room is never empty,” director of operations Robyn Romano said.
April 14 marked the semicentennial, a time through which the centre said it responded to more than 2.5 million contacts. Call volumes remain the same as before the pandemic, but the topics have changed, Romano said. “We’ve have seen a 22 per cent increase in contacts related to suicide,” she said. “In 2019, an average