Volunteer counsellors help people in crisis
Anxiety over COVID-19 has contributed to uptick in people reaching out
NOTE TO READERS: As the community grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, there are those who keep other people safe and keep essential services running, including doctors and nurses, grocery store clerks and garbage collectors. These are their stories from the front line of Niagara's battle with the novel coronavirus.
They’re not exposed to the coronavirus through their work. A grateful public isn’t bringing them food donations or erecting signs of gratitude outside their office door, either.
But volunteers at Distress Centre Niagara are on the front line helping people deal with COVID-19, alongside doctors and nurses, paramedics and personal support workers.
“It’s such an uncertain time and there is so much isolation involved. Definitely, a lot of people are reaching out,” said Amanda Stemplowski, who offers text and chat counselling. The numbers prove her right. It’s been five weeks since COVID-19 took over people’s lives, forcing social isolation, closing schools and putting thousands out of work.
Since then, texts and chat calls from people in crisis in Niagara have doubled, to 28 or 30 a day from the usual 14 or 15.
The number of people phoning in for crisis counselling, meanwhile, is up by about onethird, to an average of 60 a day from 42.
Those are all being answered by a team of volunteer counsellors trained by staff at Distress Centre Niagara to help people through their worst moments.
Stemplowski, who will start her master’s studies soon for a career in mental health, has volunteered for the past year and a half.
Because she handles texts, she deals more with younger people struggling with loneliness, stress or anxiety and who might be considering suicide.
“Any issues, especially right now, come with anxiety,” she said. “Whether you’re working right now or not, I think both positions are really stressful. And it’s such an uncertain time and there is so much isolation involved.”
Another volunteer, Bill Snow, works the phones as a counsellor for Distress Centre Niagara.
He wasn’t sure about it at first — it was his wife’s idea to get involved — but said he can’t imagine not doing it now.
“It’s really the most human thing you can do, just talking to people,” he said.
Helping them get through their worst moments, he said, “can be emotionally exhausting … but it’s a beautiful thing, if you can do that for someone.”
He continued: “People choose to call, right? So when you get somebody that’s actively suicidal … the thing you have in the back of your mind is, they did reach out to call.
“People can be very, very desperate and want to end their life. But there’s something in them that doesn’t want that. That knows there’s something else, and longs to make that connection and get through the moment.”
Some callers are regular, and he’s developed relationships with them through the phone. Usually, anxiety over COVID-19 has exacerbated issues they were already dealing with.
It sounds jargonish, he admitted, but volunteers work to achieve a “contract for safety” with their callers or texters: Promise me you will live through this moment, this night.
“There’s a reason we go through that process,” he said. “Because it works.” Need help? For emergencies, call 911. Pathstone’s 24-7 crisis hotline is 1-800-263-4944. Niagara Distress Centre’s 24-hour emergency numbers are 905-6883711, 905-734-1212, 905-382-0689 and 905-563-6674. To communicate with a counsellor via text and chat, between 2 p.m. and 2 a.m. dial 258258 from a mobile device, or go to dcontario.org and click on the ONTX button. Counsellors at COAST Niagara, by the Canadian Mental Health Association, are available at 1-866-5505205.