Help line will need adequate funding

The government of British Columbia ought to be applauded for implementing a provincewide mental-health and substance-use counselling and referral phone service for children, youth, young adults and post-secondary students. Through this strategy, the B.C. government hopes to encourage the nearly 500,000 students enrolled in public and private post-secondary institutions and about 1.3 million children and young adults to take advantage of this 24/7 service. It will be confidential, single-session counselling, virtually delivered, with minimal wait times and at no cost.

To ensure success of this project, it must include five factors. First, the project must be adequately funded. The government has allocated only $1.5 million per year for the post-secondary student service, and future budget dollars will be allocated to serve other youth groups. Even if only 10 per cent of the potential base of 500,000 post-secondary students take advantage of this service, that would be an allocation of about $30 per student per single session. The chances of finding trained, qualified and supervised personnel to accomplish the objectives of this service will be extremely limited.

Second, the project must emphasize strengthening existing counselling and referral services for post-secondary students, particularly the on-campus services that exist at every one of B.C.’s 25 public post-secondary institutions. In addition, the project must co-ordinate with existing crisis-line services that are available in communities around British Columbia. Their expertise, knowledge, experience of and partnership in delivering these services will be essential for the success of any added mentalhealth service.

Third, the project prospectus says it intends the counselling to be a “single-session” service; that is, users will somehow be limited to only one session to discuss their issue or find an appropriate referral. This limitation contradicts the Canadian standards developed by the pioneering Need Crisis Line in Victoria in the 1970s.

While the intention might be to refer those whose needs require more than one session to more appropriate practitioners, it can contribute to ending the help-seeking of callers. Building enough rapport with callers to enable them to talk about their private needs and share their stories in a confidential manner often takes more than just one session. In addition, as many crisis-line systems can attest, referrals that come too quickly can be experienced by the caller as being cut off, not understood, rejected or sometimes a “quick-fix.” These experiences often conflict with a successful referral.

Fourth, the project must attend to the role peer support has played and continues to play in helping people make the decision to access a mental-health service. Every community in B.C. has hundreds of natural helpers; these are people who are in positions or relationships to be approached or sought out to discuss a mental-health concern. Most post-secondary institutions now have peer helping, peer leadership or peer-mentoring services, where students help other students through support and referral.

Natural helpers are often in a position to have contact with their peers, friends and workmates earlier and before a mental-health issue or substance use results in significant distress. The addition of this provincewide service requires the natural helpers in communities and schools to know about this service so they can aid the referral process. This is particularly important for youth who are no longer enrolled in educational institutions.

Fifth, the focus on counselling and referral might be too narrow. Personal coaching, career coaching or life coaching ought to be an option for callers to the service.

Certainly, there will be youth who will need psychological counselling, particularly counselling that focuses on their problems, disabilities and life history. But the majority of children and youth are not beset with mental-health problems. Instead, they are faced with difficult decisions, toxic life situations, uncertain futures, and minimal access to their own resources, strengths and creativity.

Youth long for mentors or safe places to examine their lives and consider next steps. These are typically not mental-health issues; they are issues associated with living successfully and meaningfully in today’s society.

These circumstances require coaching, a practice that helps a person assess their current reality, identify future directions, and develop strategies to forge, create and sustain the path they want to pursue.