Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

The mission of Distress Centres is to provide emotional support, crisis intervention and suicide prevention to those who request our services.  We do this by:

• providing a confidential telephone service available 24 hours a day to persons in distress;
• ensuring all residents of our rapidly changing, culturally diverse city are aware of our services;
• providing suicide post-vention and emotional support to people dealing with the effects of suicide;
• providing bereavement counselling to people dealing with the effects of homicide;
• selecting and training volunteers to carry out the services of Distress Centres of Toronto;
• collaborating with and assisting the growth of complementary organizations;
• providing consultation, education and training to develop a deeper understanding within the community of the issues faced by our clients.

History of Organization

Distress Centres provide telephone, face-to-face and group support for people experiencing emotional distress, marginalization, social isolation and who may require crisis intervention and suicide/family violence intervention services. For 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, six hundred highly trained volunteers, with the support of professional staff, counsel people with a diverse range of emotional needs and life circumstances. In the mid-1960's, there was a growing awareness among Torontonians that the city lacked appropriate resources for people in distress who required immediate support and crisis intervention.  As a result Distress Centres was founded in 1967 to provide telephone-based crisis intervention and emotional support services to the people of Toronto.  The service provides immediate, confidential, emotional support for people in the GTA free of charge.

Distress Centres has marked two significant milestones over the past decade. In 2007, DC celebrated its 40th anniversary as the first Canadian telephone helpline, and in 2009 the 30th anniversary of the Survivor Support Program took place, a pioneering service in Canada to support those bereaved by the trauma-based deaths through suicide or homicide.

Since the DC’s first call more than 40 years ago, the lines have been answered continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without a single missed shift. As host of the only 24-hour distress line in Toronto, Distress Centres handles over 120,000 calls annually, with 600 highly trained volunteers providing round the clock coverage.

Accolades and Accomplishments

In recognition of her contribution to suicide prevention in Canada, including the development of numerous community-based assistance programs for people at risk or in distress, Karen Letofsky, Executive Director of Distress Centres, was named a Member of the Order of Canada in December 2007.

Throughout its long history as Toronto’s emotional safety net, the Centre has initiated and assisted in the establishment of essential local, provincial and national organizations promoting suicide and violence prevention and mental health support including: Ontario Association of Distress Centres, Metro and Area Distress Centres, Canadian Council of Crisis Centres, Toronto Council on Suicide Prevention, Canadian Association on Suicide Prevention, Assaulted Women’s Helpline and the Drug Helpline Project.

Programs

>The Distress Line
>Survivor Support Program
>Community Crisis Support Program

The Survivor Support Program provides face-to-face and group counselling for suicide and homicide grief and suicide prevention to individuals, families and community in the aftermath of a tragedy. We are frequently asked to intervene in a direct or consultative role following a suicide or homicide. DC offers basic and specialized workshops on crisis support, as well as skills training in the areas of crisis intervention, suicide prevention and ‘post-vention’.

The Community Outreach and Education Program receives numerous requests to provide speakers, training workshops, leadership, consultation and individualized information packages as resources.

The Community Crisis Response Program provides community crisis response after a critical incident. Objectives include the training and support of other community service agencies in the development of policies/protocols, risk assessment and traumatic death ‘post-vention’.

The Distress Line includes a number of 24-hour telephone-based services. The PAIRO Helpline offers Ontario-wide emotional support and crisis intervention to medical students or residents and their families. Distress Centres and Emergency Medical Services partner to provide a dedicated Warm Transfer Line for suicidal patients. Suicidal individuals, waiting for the arrival of an ambulance are provided with immediate crisis support from the DC until EMS arrives on the scene.

The Caller Reassurance Program offers self-directed support for frequent callers who are elderly, socially isolated and/or experiencing chronic mental health problems. Each participant receives a regularly scheduled outreach call that reduces the possibility of repeat calls to the Distress Line.

The Distress Line

Distress Centres’ trained volunteers provide telephone support for individuals experiencing emotional distress, marginalization, social isolation and who may require crisis intervention and suicide/family violence intervention services. Our commitment to universal access means that both volunteers and callers reflect the diversity of the GTA. For 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 600 trained volunteers, with the support of professional staff, respond to an incredibly wide variety of callers with an equally diverse range of emotional needs. Multiple telephone services are delivered through our central access number, 416-408-HELP, including:

• a community maintenance support service for those with chronic mental health problems;
• support and crisis intervention services for those in distress or crisis;
• family violence response;
• suicide prevention service;
• emergency intervention and response.

Distress Centres enables callers to continue functioning independently in the community when possible, refers them to other appropriate community or professional resources if needed, intervenes in life threatening situations, and provides direct help in suicidal and other emergency situations. Distress Line volunteers respond to the immediate and changing needs of the callers, taking into account their diverse cultures, perspectives and problem-solving abilities.

Program Impact

For almost a half century the Distress Line program has trained over 7 thousand Torontonians in crisis, suicide and family violence intervention and these remarkable volunteers have answered almost 3 million requests for help.

Distress Centres programming complements the activities of EMS, 911, 211 and Telehealth amongst others, as they deliver emotional first aid to those in need. We utilize a continuum-of-care approach, working with other agencies to maintain critical social services with seamless transfers amongst them. We work together to offer support to people needing immediate, barrier-free access to support, particularly beyond traditional office hours.

Our calls identify gaps in services and emerging issues - the information provided by our callers is useful in the support and development of additional programming to meet evolving community needs. We are an integral part of the social service infrastructure of this community, providing an emotional safety net for our most vulnerable citizens.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Social assistance recipients in Ontario are particularly vulnerable to ill health. They are significantly more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, chronic bronchitis, mood and anxiety disorders, even when other factors, such as educational attainment, smoking, physical activity and disability status are taken into account. One in ten considered suicide in the twelve months preceding the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey. Suicide attempts were 10 times higher for that group than for those not living with poverty.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

The Distress Centre provides support to the most vulnerable marginalized populations in Toronto, particularly people facing forms of economic and social oppression. We do not specifically target these people experiencing discrimination but find that they make up a high proportion of our service users.

Participant Vignette

Meet Sanjay, a 408-Help Line volunteer for the past two years. He is 38-years old, born in India, and describes himself as someone who has always loved talking to people. It is this love of people and his desire to contribute to society, to make a difference, which brought him to Distress Centres. Due to some limitations as a result of a physical disability, he was looking for work that would enable him to stay seated. Our agency provided him with the opportunity of sitting while he listened to the personal stories of callers to the helpline. He particularly remembers his first call from a suicidal person.

He and his partner were both relatively new volunteers at the time. By supporting one another and with the back-up of staff, they were able to connect with the distraught man, who was sitting in his cold car beside a railroad track. Sanjay made a difference in that man’s life that night and that conversation made a difference in his life too. He says that what he has learned on the phones is to accept people as they are. And, he is trying to do just that in his everyday life.

Survivor Support Program

Individuals bereaved by suicide are themselves at high risk for both complicated grief reactions and suicide itself. Friends and families left behind after a suicide are truly "survivors", often facing an emotional torrent of guilt, anger, and shame and impaired family functioning. Our specialized, face-to-face service offers both grief counselling and suicide prevention to individuals, families and members of the community in the aftermath of a death by suicide. Support is provided through both individualized sessions and group meetings and is available in the home, if appropriate, to aid in trauma mastery. 

We are frequently asked to intervene in a direct or consultative role following an institutional suicide (such as in a school or office). The Suicide Resource Centre is housed in this program, providing up-to-date materials and information packages to clients, volunteers, students, and other interested members of the community.

In 2005 the program expanded its mandate to offer Homicide Bereavement Support. This program provides counselling and support to families and friends who have lost someone to a death by murder. This service was initiated in response to an identified gap in service and at implementation was the first of its kind in Ontario.

Program Impact

For over 30 years the Survivor Support Program has consistently provided support to individuals and families affected by sudden violent death—suicide and homicide.  Over that time we have counselled thousands of survivors through direct face-to-face contact, by telephone and in group settings. Approximately one half of our trained counselors are survivors themselves, many of whom have benefited from participation in the program. 

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Social assistance recipients in Ontario are particularly vulnerable to ill health. They are significantly more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, chronic bronchitis, mood and anxiety disorders, even when other factors, such as educational attainment, smoking, physical activity and disability status are taken into account. One in ten considered suicide in the twelve months preceding the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey. Suicide attempts were 10 times higher for that group than for those not living with poverty.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

The Distress Centre provides support to the most vulnerable marginalized populations in Toronto, particularly people facing forms of economic and social oppression. We do not specifically target these people experiencing discrimination but find that they make up a high proportion of our service users.

Participant Vignette

Meet Vicki, a middle-aged mother from Trinidad who describes herself as a survivor. It was the suicide of her father that led her to volunteer with the Survivor Support Program. She has been on a journey of personal growth and service throughout her adult life. She characterizes herself as a compassionate woman of integrity who stands by her values. During the years that she has worked in our program, she has completed her training as a counselor in the areas of childhood abuse and trauma. Vicki says that she feels rewarded by seeing people work towards getting their lives back together. As she witnesses their self-actualization, it reaffirms the fulfillment of her own personal journey. She particularly remembers one program participant whose voice was silenced by the suicide of her son. In fact, she barely spoke during the first two support sessions. By the time the meetings were completed, though, trust had been established and the grieving mother was able to fully engage in deep discussions about her loss. Vicki said that she learned from that participant the power of “allowing her to be”.

Community Crisis Support Program

The Community Crisis Response Program (CCRP) develops programs, plans and capabilities to reduce the emotional vulnerability of Torontonians during critical incidents, pandemics and disasters.  Through the CCRP, Distress Centres plays an integral part in the City’s Psychosocial Emergency Response and Recovery Services (PERRS) in partnership with Toronto school boards, Children’s Aid Societies of Toronto, Bereaved Families of Ontario, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Sunnybrook Hospital Social Work Department, Toronto Police Victim Services, Toronto Public Health Community Crisis Intervention & Support Team and Yonge Street Mission.

PERRS collaborates on a community-wide basis and provides immediate, short and long-term services and programs to help and to support the physical, social, psychological, cultural, spiritual and economic recovery of citizens affected by a disaster. It utilizes multi-service collaboratively designed components, including both face-to-face and telephone support. The program’s objectives include the training and support of other community service agencies in the development of policies/protocols with respect to crisis response, risk assessment and traumatic death ‘post-vention’.  Through this initiative, Distress Centres supports capacity building initiatives in high risk-for-crisis communities and works to increase the sense of personal competence and emotional safety in individuals impacted by traumatic loss.

Program Impact

The full effects of critical incidents, pandemics and disasters are felt most strongly by support organizations at the local level. This is where the DC makes a definitive and essential contribution to community crisis management in the GTA: we maintain a highly effective decentralized support system that Torontonians rely on for the communication of essential information and support in the initiation of individual coping plans. The success of the CCRP lies in our alliance with PERRS: through it, a dedicated group of multi-sectoral support organizations maintain integrated emergency systems that ensure Toronto is prepared to cope with adverse community events. Our coordinated efforts with PERSS are achieved though policy development, vulnerability assessment, emergency planning, training and education and monitoring and evaluation.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Social assistance recipients in Ontario are particularly vulnerable to ill health. They are significantly more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, chronic bronchitis, mood and anxiety disorders, even when other factors, such as educational attainment, smoking, physical activity and disability status are taken into account. One in ten considered suicide in the twelve months preceding the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey. Suicide attempts were 10 times higher for that group than for those not living with poverty.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

The Distress Centre provides support to the most vulnerable marginalized populations in Toronto, particularly people facing forms of economic and social oppression. We do not specifically target these people experiencing discrimination but find that they make up a high proportion of our service users.

Participant Vignette

During Toronto’s response to the threat of an H1N1 pandemic, Toronto Public Health activated its emergency protocols. Under the leadership of Barbara Switzer, the psychosocial component of the plan was initiated with invitations to participate extended to community partners. Distress Centres agreed to provide volunteers to assist at the inoculation and flu assessment clinics. Changing target population priorities and a lack of clarity around current information and status had lent an air of confusion and chaos to these clinics, often creating frustration and distress amongst those waiting to be seen by a nurse. Distress Centres volunteers, trained in emotional first aid worked with staff and volunteers from a number of other agencies to provide crisis de-escalation and emotional support to distraught community members. At Distress Centres’ Annual General Meeting on April 26th, Barbara Switzer expressed appreciation, on behalf of Toronto Public Health, to the volunteers who had participated in this outreach. She said “thanks to your support, the nurses were able to provide necessary medical services to citizens who were experiencing acute emotional distress that had escalated over time and significantly compromised our ability to successfully treat them. The psycho-social help that you offered enabled us to do what we do best and helped create a more supportive environment for the waiting public. This was an effective partnership!”