Centre D'Aide 24/7 distress line to close over funding cuts
A Gatineau telephone help line for people in a mental health crisis said it will be forced to shut down in April if the Quebec government goes ahead with its proposal to slash its annual budget.
Centre D'Aide 24/7 handles 9,300 calls a year from people in a mental health crisis. It has operated for more than 27 years, offering house calls and emergency beds for those in need.
But a proposal to cut its annual budget from $1.3 million to $200,000 will prevent it from providing those unique services, said crisis centre co-ordinator Christine Faucher.
"It's very hard. What we've worked on for so many years won't be there anymore," she said. "We avoid hospitals, we avoid trouble with the law just by being there for those people."
'Lost in a big structure'
Quebec's health ministry said its own information phone line for mental health issues will be available for those in need.
But Faucher said that unlike the centre's phone staff, the province does not offer to go a person's home and bring a client back to one of the emergency in-house beds the centre provides.
"We pick up the phone, we establish that rapport. If they're in danger, we take the time to let them express what they're going through," she said.
"And if that's not enough, that same person will go meet with them. That same person will also bring them back to the centre and give them a room. So it's not getting lost in a big structure."
The funding cuts will only allow the centre to operate four in-house beds for those in crisis, Faucher said.
Christine Simard, who runs a housing service with mental health support called Centre-Inter-Section, said her staff refer people to Centre D'Aide. She is worried that a provincial phone line will simply refer people to agencies in Gatineau.
"It will be catastrophic because when they are in crisis you need a crisis team," she said. "We're afraid that the crisis intervention will be diluted."
Centre D'Aide has asked ministry for a moratorium on the funding cut until they meet to discuss a solution. If not, it will close on April 1.
