WARNING: This story contains details about mental health and suicide. Discretion is advised.
Kids Help Phone says there’s been a sharp increase in the number of requests for help coming from young people in the middle of the night, with an even larger surge expected this September when school starts.
The organization says overnight texting demand has jumped by nearly a quarter (24 per cent) so far compared to last year, and it’s launching an urgent fundraising appeal ahead of the back-to-school season.
In Ontario, the increase is overnight texting is even higher at 27 per cent.
“Overnight is already our busiest time, right now it’s about 183 per cent higher overnight than it is during the day, to give a frame of reference, and so we’ve seen this trend increasing as the year has continued and now we are at sort of at an all-time high for our texting service,” Aaron Sanderson, president and CEO of Kids Help Phone Foundation, told CityNews.
Kids Help Phone defines an overnight call or text as one occurring between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Sanderson say young people are reaching out about anxiety, stress, relationship challengers, depression and suicide.
“Young people are living in a really complex world these days, we know that the sort of 24/7 digital and technology cycle that they live in, the wild fires that are affecting communities, there’s a combo of factors that are making it a different world now as a young person …”
“And I also think in a positive way, there’s less stigma than there maybe once was,” he adds. “We have to maintain that it is hopeful that these young people are reaching out to us for support and that we’re there and able to respond to their requests.”
Sanderson says the organization receives a new text message conversation on average every 90 seconds, day and night.
For many, it’s their first time reaching out.
“Seventy per cent of the young people who reach out to us have never talked about the challenge that they are facing so we often that first place that a young person might reach out…” Sanderson adds.
The Kids Help Phone Foundation is now launching an urgent fundraising appeal to help expand its overnight clinical capacity — and there is an added incentive — the J&W Murphy Foundation will match donations up to $250,000 through Sept. 11.
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