OTTAWA and GATINEAU — Canada is getting a new 988 mental health crisis and suicide prevention number — but not until Nov. 30, 2023.
The CRTC announced today it will adopt 988 as the three-digit number to call or text for Canadians in need of immediate crisis intervention, however, it will take more than a year for the number to go live.
The United States has already implemented 988 for its national mental health hotline, which launched in mid-July.
What needs to happen before the 988 number can function across Canada is 10-digit dialling must be introduced in areas where seven-digit dialling is still the norm, which includes Newfoundland and Labrador, northern Ontario and the Yellowknife area, explains a press release from the CRTC.
The commission is giving Canadian service providers until May 31, 2023 to complete the transition to 10-digit local dialling in the areas mentioned above.
Once that transition is complete, service providers will then have six months to make necessary changes to their networks to enable Canadians to dial or text 988, thus ensuring the number is launched across Canada at the same time on Nov. 30, 2023, the CRTC says.
“Once implemented by telephone and wireless service providers, calls and texts to 9-8-8 will be directed to a mental health crisis or suicide prevention service, free of charge,” the CRTC’s press release reads.
“We are taking a significant step in making mental health and suicide prevention resources more accessible to everyone in Canada. A single, easy to remember point of contact will provide much-needed help to those in crisis and will be crucial to saving lives,” said CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott, in the release.
“Although much work is left to be done to bring help to people who need it, we have set accelerated timelines to ensure that 9-8-8 is implemented as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” Scott said.
The CRTC’s new regulatory policy for the introduction of a three-digit mental health crisis number comes more than a year after it initiated a proceeding on the matter in June 2021.
