The Crisis Centre for Northern BC has experienced a 30% spike in calls since the coronavirus pandemic took flight.
Last year, the Crisis Centre eclipsed over 10-thousand calls and Executive Director, Sandra Boulianne told Vista Radio they easily expect to surpass that number this year.
“We’re anticipating that will increase this year because of what’s going on with COVID and the staff is putting aside its administrative tasks so that we can be on the phone lines as well.”
She added the closures and reduction of services can cause additional anxiety for residents, and getting them in a better frame of mind is important.
“We want to empower people, maybe someone is stressed out because they can’t go out and some of the conveniences or the important resources are not available, we’ll brainstorm with that person.”
Boulianne also talked about her own struggles during the pandemic.
“Just even reading the news every day, I feel a little stressed out so I’ve had to limit myself from constantly checking and looking at the numbers so that I can stay focused and calm on the job that we have to do here.”
She adds mental health issues are brought into the spotlight, even more, when a crisis like this happens.
“Things are maybe magnified. If somebody is already struggling with anxiety or depression, seeing all this bad news, death totals and increases in COVUD cases can only make that worse.”
The Northern BC Crisis Line is 1-250-563-1214 or toll-free at 1-888-562-1214.
The service is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
