There are signs that everything we’re going through during the COVID-19 pandemic, from job losses to social isolation, is taking a toll on our mental health.
A crisis line that serves a large section of the B.C. interior, including the Okanagan, received a record volume of calls in March — and more of those calls than usual were from people in an acute state of crisis.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Vernon branch said calls to the Interior Crisis Line Network were up 32 per cent in the last two weeks of March, with a 140-per cent increase in the number of calls from people in an acute crisis.
Branch executive director Julia Payson describes the current situation as a “double whammy, because not only are we going through a crisis but