sam, Author at Crisis Centre BC

What if you had the superpower to save a life?

Posted on June 16, 2026June 16, 2026 by sam

I work with superheroes for a living. I’m an FX Artist. When my nieces and nephews ask what that means, I tell them I’m the one who gives superheroes their special powers.

That might sound playful, but it’s serious work. In movies, powers don’t appear by accident. Someone decides what a character can do, when they discover it, and whether they learn how to use that power before the story turns tragic. Powers only matter if they show up at the right moment.

My understanding of that didn’t come from my work alone. It came from my family.

My mom’s father died by suicide in the 1970s. She wasn’t told directly. She learned from another kid on a playground. There was no careful explanation, no adult conversation, no protection for a child receiving news that would shape her life forever.

That loss echoed through our family. Suicidal ideation touched more than one generation. Throughout my childhood, my mom sometimes had to step away from family life to take care of herself. Healing took time. It wasn’t neat or linear.

In my family, suicide was never taboo. It was talked about openly. That openness shaped me. It made the topic speakable, even when it was painful. It also taught me something important early on: silence doesn’t protect people. Tools do.

Outside my family, suicide kept appearing in my life. A student at my school. Someone I went to church with as a teenager. A former teacher I deeply admired, someone who created an inclusive classroom at a time when I was being bullied. That loss stayed with me the most. Over time, the number grew. Four people. And then more.

Eventually, I found my way to the Crisis Centre of BC. At first, I thought helping meant responding at the very end of the story. Instead, I learned something more powerful: prevention is about equipping people earlier.

Through training like safeTALK and ASIST, I learned that one of the most important “powers” you can give someone is language. The ability to ask a hard question plainly: “Are you thinking about suicide?” I learned that caring deeply isn’t a reason to avoid that question. It’s the reason to ask it.

Those tools changed how I show up in the world. I’ve used them with friends who were struggling. I’ve seen how much it matters when someone feels heard instead of alone. I’ve seen how a single, honest question can interrupt the story before it turns tragic.

That’s why I support the work of the Crisis Centre of BC, and why I now volunteer as a Youth Educator. But volunteering isn’t the point. The point is power. The kind of power that helps people notice what’s happening inside themselves. The kind that helps them name distress, ask for help, and recognize the current before they’re pulled under.

As an FX Artist, I give superheroes their powers.
Through the Crisis Centre of BC, people are given real ones.

Training, youth education, and crisis intervention don’t happen by accident. They exist because people choose to support them. If this idea of giving people their powers resonates with you, I invite you to support the work of the Crisis Centre of BC, take one of our training programs, sign up to be a monthly donor or one-time donor, or become a volunteer yourself. Your generosity helps ensure these tools are there when someone needs them, at exactly the right moment.

* This story is shared with permission. Some identifying details, including my name, have been changed to protect privacy and confidentiality.

Preventing Suicide on the Granville Street Bridge

Posted on June 2, 2026June 4, 2026 by sam

Background
On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, Stacy Ashton, Executive Director of the Crisis Centre of BC, will appear before Vancouver City Council to speak in strong support of funding and installing suicide prevention barriers on the Granville Street Bridge.

These below speaking points call on the City of Vancouver to treat suicide prevention barriers as lifesaving infrastructure.

The message is clear: suicide prevention barriers save lives.

Speaking Notes
At the Crisis Centre, suicide prevention is not an abstract policy issue. It is not a resolution put forward for a decision. It is the work we do every hour of every day. We are there when someone is not sure they can make it through the next ten minutes. We are there when a family member is terrified for someone they love. We are there after a suicide loss, when people are left trying to survive a grief that changes the shape of their whole life.

So when we speak about barriers on the Granville Street Bridge, we are speaking from the frontlines of suicide prevention. We know these moments. We know how quickly they can unfold. And we know that time, interruption, and connection can save a life.

When a person is experiencing a suicidal crisis, clear thought is difficult. The desire to escape the current situation temporarily overwhelms hope for a better future. People talk about feeling like they are a burden, that the world would be a better place without them in it. When people come out of a suicidal despair, most of what they thought at the time just doesn’t make sense anymore – because a suicidal crisis is the opposite of a rational state of mind.

This is precisely why physical barriers at known suicide locations save lives. They interrupt a moment of acute crisis. They create time for a person to pause, for help to arrive, for a crisis line phone to be used, and for first responders or others to support a person toward safety.

Most people who survive a suicidal crisis do not go on to die by suicide. That matters. It means the bridge can be the difference between a life that ends and a life that continues. A barrier does not solve every pain in a person’s life, but it can interrupt the moment when pain becomes fatal.*

When we lose someone to suicide, we lose the life that could have been. For those who have lost a loved one to suicide, every day is another day their person should be alive. The thought of “if only there had been a way to stop them” is incredibly painful when we know that, in the case of bridges, there was a way: bridge barriers.

The Granville Street Bridge is a known location of concern. The City of Vancouver acknowledges the need for barriers, yet funding has been delayed, made contingent on other levels of government, and then removed from the current capital plan. Today, I wholeheartedly support Councilor Dominato’s motion to prioritize suicide prevention fencing on the Granville Bridge, and to put it back into the capital plan.

The question before Council should not be whether suicide prevention barriers are necessary. They are. The question is whether the City will treat them with the urgency that lifesaving infrastructure deserves. Bridge building is almost entirely driven by safety considerations: bridges have to be as safe for the driver of a semi-trailer as for a parent pushing a stroller. We don’t question the costs of high-quality materials, bridge maintenance, crosswalks, and the myriad of other regulations that ensure bridge safety.

Suicide prevention barriers save lives. They are not optional. Future deaths from the Granville Street Bridge can be prevented. Future grief can be prevented. Future risk and trauma for first responders and bystanders can be prevented.

So let’s prevent these tragedies. Let’s make it right.

* 90% of individuals who attempt suicide, do not ultimately die by suicide.

We are pleased that the motion passed unanimously at the Vancouver City Council meeting on June 3, 2026.

We were impacted by the powerful speakers and comments from the Council, summarized below.

You can watch the recording of the City Council meeting here.

What we heard from other speakers

Dr. Brandon Yau, Medical Health Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health

“Suicide deaths from this bridge are preventable tragedies.”

These suicides impact the individual involved, their loved ones, first responders, healthcare workers, bystanders, and our community at large. Means prevention is an established, evidence-based approach to preventing suicide. It is critical, life-saving infrastructure for people experiencing momentary, acute mental health crises.

The City of Vancouver has demonstrated their leadership in this space by the installation of fencing on Ironworkers Memorial Bridge in 2015 and Burrard Bridge in 2017. There have been no suicide deaths on these bridges since then.

Currently, Granville Bridge has the second highest number of suicide deaths of any Vancouver bridge, averaging around 2.6 deaths every year.

The installation of fencing on Granville Bridge would save lives and would be a highly worthwhile investment. Our team at VCH looks forward to our continued collaboration with the City of Vancouver on this topic.

Tom Lancaster, General Manager, Granville Island

“This is not about pulling on heartstrings. It is fundamentally an issue of public safety.”

I’m assuming that we are all on the same page: that any one of us would do whatever we could to save just one human life, let alone prevent needless deaths for decades into the future.

While we all know this is a priority, where it stands amongst other capital spending priorities may be a cause for debate. I do understand that. Here’s some perspective, though.

Granville Island is one of the most visited places in all of Canada. Last year, we welcomed just under 11 million visitors. Tens of thousands of people every day wander our public spaces, on, around, and underneath the Granville Bridge. More than half of those visiting are children and families. There’s also 3,100 people working full-time on Granville Island.

Prioritizing this fencing is not about pulling on heartstrings. It is fundamentally an issue of public safety, supporting small business, protecting workers, and protecting the public.

Emma, ninth grader and local resident

“Since when do we put a price tag on human life?”

My name is Emma and I’m only in the ninth grade at West Point Grey Academy. I live next to the Granville Street Bridge and I’m highly in favor of this motion.

Today I’m speaking not only for myself, but for families in my building, residents along Beach Crescent, people on Granville Island, and everyone who’s been forced to witness these tragedies that happen on the bridge due to the absence of suicide barriers.

This bridge has caused years of trauma for me, beginning when I was only 12 years old.

I saw a man sitting on the edge of the bridge, moments away from ending his life. I stood there crying, later, trying to understand what could bring someone to that point, with my mom struggling to explain it to me.

No child should ever have to witness that, but it didn’t end there.

Over the years, I’ve watched people sit on that edge again and again. I’ve seen people jump, and I’ve seen a dead woman in my driveway. And on May 12th, I watched a woman hanging from the bridge. She was there for eight hours.

That night, I laid in my bed trying to fall asleep as quickly as possible because I was terrified of hearing a body hit the floor.

Those images don’t leave you.They steal your sense of safety and they change the way that you feel in your own home.I can barely live with my blinds open anymore because I’m afraid of what I might see outside my window. And yet, despite years of warnings and preventable deaths and years of residents speaking up, suicide barriers continue to be ignored because of cost.

So my question is, since when do we put a price tag on human life?

Since when does money take precedence over saving lives?

Because these barriers create time for intervention and give people in crisis the chance to get home safely. They protect families from unimaginable loss and every life saved means a family does not lose someone they love. They protect communities like mine. They protect residents, workers and children from witnessing trauma that can stay with them forever. And we already know that they work. After suicide prevention barriers were installed on the Burrard Bridge, fatalities stopped.

We have evidence. We know that these barriers save lives. So why does it come down to cost?

Recently, I received a response from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office informing me that my concerns have been forwarded to the Minister of Health and the Minister of Public Safety. These issues are being taken seriously and could receive federal support. But we need action and immediate action. Every delay in the construction of these barriers means another opportunity for tragedy, another life lost, another family shattered, and another young person forced to witness something they should never have to see.

The question is no longer whether these barriers work or if they’re needed. The question is: how many more people have to die before we decide that their lives are worth protecting?

What we heard from city councillors

Lisa Dominato
There’s the impact on the victims, their families, but also the public safety component. We all know the complexity of mental health and that what we need is a continuum. Means prevention is a way of intervening and preventing loss of life. And I think that, at the end of the day, the right thing to do is to advance this work.

Pete Fry
It seems this is a perennial debate. We still come back and we never find the funding. Meanwhile, people’s lives are lost and people are traumatized. These are real people. These are real damages that are preventable.

I hope we will actually see some meaningful movement, and actually put means prevention on the Granville Street Bridge. It’s far overdue.

Rebecca Bligh
In a city like Vancouver, where numerous bridges are part of our core infrastructure, I think we all recognize the weight of this topic.

It is our responsibility as a city to see this bridge as infrastructure that we own. And that this is part of building a bridge. This is part of maintaining city infrastructure. We have an imperative to protect our residents, to deliver this funding in the capital plan, and to say: this is a priority.

I look forward to seeing this identified as a key commitment and an expression of our values as a city when we are dealing with the capital plan in July.

Remembrance Gathering in Support of Darkness Into Light 2026

Posted on April 23, 2026April 23, 2026 by sam

On Sunday, May 3 at 8:30 PM, the Crisis Centre of BC invites our community to gather at Vancouver City Hall, north side off West 12th Avenue, for a brief public Remembrance Gathering in Support of Darkness Into Light.

This gathering will offer a simple and dignified moment to honour those lost to suicide, acknowledge the ongoing reality of suicide bereavement, and stand in solidarity with individuals, families, and communities living with that grief.

City Hall will be lit up in honour of the event. There will be a brief welcome and a shared moment of silence.

This is a drop-in gathering, open to all who wish to come together in remembrance, reflection, and care.

Event Details
Sunday, May 3, 2026 @ 8:30 PM
30-minute drop-in gathering
Vancouver City Hall
North side, off West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
No Registration Required

We hope you will join us.

Everyone deserves support.
If you’re having thoughts of suicide, call or text 9-8-8.
If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, call 310-6789.

Media Release: Crisis Centre of BC disappointed by vote against suicide prevention barriers on Granville Street Bridge

Posted on March 12, 2026March 12, 2026 by sam

Crisis Centre of BC disappointed by vote against suicide prevention barriers on Granville Street Bridge

Vancouver, BC – March 11, 2026 – The Crisis Centre of BC is deeply disappointed by Vancouver City Council’s decision on March 10 to remove funding for suicide prevention barriers on Granville Bridge from the 2027-2030 Capital Plan.

For the Crisis Centre of BC, this vote is about more than infrastructure. It is about whether we are willing to act on a known, evidence-based way to save lives.

“When we talk about suicide prevention barriers, we are talking about people,” said Stacy Ashton, Executive Director of the Crisis Centre of BC. “We are talking about someone’s loved one, someone who may be experiencing one of the most difficult moments of their life.”

Suicide prevention barriers are the most effective way to prevent deaths at bridge locations. The Centre believes Vancouver has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to move this work forward with urgency.

“This is not abstract,” said Ashton. “This is about whether a person in crisis encounters a protective interruption that creates space for help and safety, or whether they continue to face access to a deadly means. That difference matters. It can be the difference between life and death.”

“Suicide barriers on bridges should not be optional. The City installed suicide prevention barriers on Burrard Bridge in 2017, and there have been no deaths by suicide since. On the Granville Bridge, there have been six deaths since 2019. Delays cost lives.”

The Centre continues to support funding from all levels of government for building suicide prevention barriers. But advocacy alone is not enough for individuals, families, and communities who are living with the reality of suicide and its devastating impact.

“Every suicide has a ripple effect,” Ashton said. “It impacts families, friends, co-workers, first responders, witnesses, and entire communities. Prevention matters because people matter. A suicide-safer city is one that chooses to act before more lives are lost.”

The Crisis Centre of BC calls on all levels of government to work together to advance life-saving suicide prevention measures on the Granville Street Bridge.

“Bridges should be places that connect us,” said Ashton. “They should not remain places where people are left vulnerable in moments of profound crisis. We remain committed to advocating for measures that protect life.”

Get Support

If you’re having thoughts of suicide, please call or text 9-8-8.

If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 310-6789.

Media Contact

Stacy Ashton

Executive Director, Crisis Centre of BC

sashton@crisiscentre.bc.ca

604-872-1811 x224

Jeffrey Preiss

Director, Development & Communications

jpreiss@crisiscentre.bc.ca

604-872-1811 x222

Media Release: Continued Commitment to 9-8-8 Helps Ensure No One Faces a Suicide Crisis Alone

Posted on January 16, 2026January 16, 2026 by sam

Continued Commitment to 9-8-8 Helps Ensure No One Faces a Suicide Crisis Alone

Vancouver, BC — January 16, 2026 — At the Crisis Centre of BC, the reality of suicide is heard every day in the voices of people who reach out late at night, during a break at work, or in moments when everything feels like it might fall apart. They are parents, youth, veterans, elders, and caregivers, people who are not looking for answers, but for someone to listen and help them stay safe.

Every day in Canada, an average of 13 people die by suicide, and more than 250 others attempt it. Those numbers are not abstract. They represent real lives and real moments of crisis, and they are why accessible, compassionate support like the 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline matters so deeply.

The Crisis Centre of BC is grateful for today’s announcement confirming continued federal funding for the 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline, a commitment that affirms the importance of accessible, compassionate support for people across Canada who are experiencing overwhelming distress or thoughts of suicide.

Since its launch in November 2023, 9-8-8 has answered more than 800,000 calls and texts, each one representing a moment when someone chose connection instead of isolation. While 9-8-8 is a national number, it is delivered through a network of community-based crisis centres, including the Crisis Centre of BC. These local centres are essential to ensuring the service works from coast to coast to coast, grounding national access in local realities through human connection, cultural awareness, and trauma-informed care.

“Today’s announcement is a powerful vote of confidence in community-based suicide prevention and crisis care,” said Stacy Ashton, Executive Director of the Crisis Centre of BC, who spoke at the 9-8-8 funding announcement in Delta today. “The Crisis Centre of BC, along with eight other crisis centres across the province, answers calls and texts to 9-8-8. What makes this program so effective is that it builds on decades of experience. Crisis centres across Canada have been providing suicide intervention and 24/7 crisis support for more than 50 years. This continued investment strengthens our ability to show up for people in their most vulnerable moments and transforms what we are able to do in our communities.”

National investment has made it possible for trained responders across the country to meet people where they are, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

For the Crisis Centre of BC, this work is deeply relational. It is one person holding space with another through a moment of fear. It is a conversation that slows things down enough for someone to breathe, to feel heard, and to take the next step toward safety. Continued investment ensures that when someone reaches out, whether for themselves or for someone they love, there will be a trained responder on the other end of the line, ready to listen.

If you or someone you know needs support, call or text 9-8-8, anytime, anywhere in Canada.

Media Contact

Stacy Ashton

Executive Director, Crisis Centre of BC

sashton@crisiscentre.bc.ca

604-872-1811 x224

Jeffrey Preiss

Director, Development & Communications

jpreiss@crisiscentre.bc.ca

604-872-1811 x222

Media Release: Crisis Centre Responds to BC Coroners Service Review of Youth and Young Adult Deaths by Suicide

Posted on October 16, 2025October 23, 2025 by sam

Vancouver, BC – 10/16/2025 — The BC Coroner’s Service has released Creating Connection, Supporting Strengths: A Review of Youth and Young Adult Deaths by Suicide In British Columbia, 2019-2023, a reminder that too many young people are dying by suicide. The Crisis Centre of BC acknowledged the findings confirm what we know from our frontline responder work: the urgent need for community-based, connected care that meets youth where they are.

“Creating connection is key to suicide prevention,” says Stacy Ashton, executive director at the Crisis Centre of BC. At the Crisis Centre of BC, everything we do begins with connection. Last year alone, we went into over 350 classrooms talking directly to high school students about reaching out for help.

“Last year, thousands of young people called one of our distress lines. They’re doing what we ask of them when they feel like they want to die: they are reaching out to crisis lines. But when the call ends, too often the system leaves them without the ongoing support that could help them live through their pain.

Across BC, care often stops at treating depression or anxiety, but suicide itself is rarely addressed head-on. We know what works to help people survive the kind of pain that makes them want to die. The most effective steps are simple, evidence-based, and deeply human:

Create a formal safety plan in collaboration with the person having thoughts of suicide
Limit access to means that can end a life
Ensure a warm handoff to continuing care – not just a cold referral form
Reach out after discharge from hospital to remind the person they are not alone.

These measures directly address the fact of suicidal pain, no matter what is causing it.

“When someone goes to hospital with a fever, we bring the fever down because the fever itself can kill people. When someone is suicidal, we look for a diagnosis to reach – and if we don’t find one, we often send the young person home, hoping the pain will pass. That’s not care; that’s triage. And triage means deciding who gets help instead of making sure everyone does,” states Ashton.

The Coroner’s report found that only 60% of the youth and young adults who died by suicide met the criteria for a mental health diagnosis – this means that four in ten would not have qualified for mental health care at all.

Even so, most of these young people reached out. Nearly eight in ten (79%) had seen a mental health practitioner within a year, 25% within a week of their death, and almost one in four had been hospitalized. Forty six % had been prescribed medication in the 12 months prior to their death. They did what people do in crisis: they sought help. Despite well-known barriers to care, the young people documented in the BC Coroner’s report did their level best to live.

“We recognize these young people,” says Ashton. “They reached out to us, to doctors, to teachers, to friends. The truth is, our systems weren’t built to hold them through their pain. That’s what has to change.”

The Crisis Centre of BC is helping to build a crisis care continuum designed to respond directly to suicidal crisis, wherever it begins. Whether someone calls 9-1-1, talks to a doctor, or walks into an emergency room, connection must be the constant. A truly connected system links every point of contact to 24/7, no-barrier support through crisis lines.

Crisis responders meet people where they are, over the phone, by text, or through collaboration with community partners. In regions where 911 routes mental-health and crisis calls to crisis lines, 80% of those calls are resolved safely without police or hospital involvement. For the remaining 20% who need in-person support, crisis lines can activate mobile mental-health teams such as CRCL, which pair clinicians with people who have lived experience of crisis. These teams provide care, not custody, diverting people from high-cost, high-harm responses toward help that heals.

“We already know an integrated crisis care continuum is what our province needs to respond to the complex mental-health and addictions crisis playing out in our homes and streets,” said Ashton. “Connection and warm follow-up must be at the centre of every response. Crisis lines are incredibly flexible tools: available 24 hours a day, every day. We can intervene before someone reaches an emergency room, follow up after hospital discharge, and support families and friends who are struggling to keep someone safe. There are many ways people fall through the cracks, but we can catch them with systems built on connection.”

Media Contact
Stacy Ashton
Executive Director, Crisis Centre of BC
sashton@crisiscentre.bc.ca

Jeffrey Preiss
Director, Development & Communications
jpreiss@crisiscentre.bc.ca

Backgrounder

Creating Connection, Supporting Strengths: A Review of Youth and Young Adult Deaths by Suicide In British Columbia, 2019-2023.

The report makes five key recommendations:

Create and implement a provincial suicide-risk-reduction framework specifically focused on youth and young adults.
Improve data collection, information sharing and reporting processes to better understand and support diverse communities throughout B.C.
Review existing social and emotional health-related resources to ensure they meet the needs of the diversity of school-age students in B.C.
Create an educational model to ensure doctors, nurses, paramedics and other emergency medical professionals are appropriately trained in early identification, assessment, management and follow-up of youth and young adults who are at higher risk of death by suicide.
Co-develop a “third spaces” strategy to create venues for young people to develop and maintain connections in their own communities.

When the first heartbreak hits

Posted on October 7, 2025October 14, 2025 by sam

The call came late one night. Alex’s voice was quiet, hesitant. “I know other people have it worse,” they said. “But I don’t know how to stop crying.”

Just a week earlier, Alex’s first serious relationship had ended. They had shared everything with their partner – plans, playlists, secrets, hope. And suddenly, it was gone. Their friends told them it was “just a break-up,” but to Alex it felt like losing part of who they were.

When Alex reached out to the Crisis Centre, they expected to be told to move on or that time heals all wounds. Instead, they were asked a simple question: “What’s hurting most right now?”

That question opened a door. Alex talked about how quiet their apartment felt, how hard it was to eat, how impossible it seemed to face another day of pretending to be okay.

The responder listened. Not with solutions, but with presence—with the message that it’s human to grieve what mattered.

At the Crisis Centre of BC, we know crisis can come in many forms. Sometimes it’s a break-up, a family conflict, or the weight of expectations. Sometimes it’s thoughts of suicide. Whatever it is, your pain deserves to be heard.

You don’t have to wait until it feels “bad enough.” If it matters to you, it matters to us.

–

Crisis lines are available across British Columbia 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you or someone you know needs help, please call:

9-8-8 (call or text)
310-6789 (no area code needed)
1-800-SUICIDE / 1-800-784-2433
604-872-3311

When an “F” feels like the end of the world

Posted on October 7, 2025October 14, 2025 by sam

It was just one letter – an “F” scrawled in red at the top of a paper – but for Maya, it might as well have been a flashing warning light.

She had never failed anything before. Through high school and into her first year at university, she had built her identity around perfect grades, scholarships, and the unspoken expectation that she would excel. Her parents were proud, her professors encouraging, her friends admiring. That’s who she was! …or was it? Suddenly, she wasn’t sure.

She knew she had been struggling lately with her course – the pace of everything felt like a whirlwind, and with her part time job she’d just started, studying had taken a back seat for a while. But she thought she’d been catching up, doing better. And then, suddenly, this F.

She stared at the mark until it blurred. A thousand thoughts spun in her min. What would my family think? What if I’m not who they think I am? What if I can’t do this?

That night, Maya found herself calling a number she had seen on a poster near campus: 310-6789, the mental health support line.

When the responder answered, Maya apologized right away. “I know this isn’t a real crisis,” she said. “It’s just a bad grade.”

As she said those last few words, she heard her voice shake. Just a bad grade – so why did it feel like such a big deal?

The responder paused. “It sounds like this really matters to you,” they said gently.

And that was the moment Maya began to exhale. There was no judgment, no checklist, no ranking of her pain against anyone else’s. Just someone listening, helping her untangle the panic from the disappointment, the fear from the self-blame.

By the end of the call, Maya wasn’t “fixed.” The F still stung. But it didn’t feel like the end of the world any more. She was able to see it for what it was: an unfortunate grade. A sign that she’d been more stressed out than she realized. A chance to do better next time. And she’d slowed down, stopped spiraling; didn’t feel alone or worthless any more.

At the Crisis Centre, when you reach out, we meet you where you are – with compassion, not a pretense that we have all the answers. We know crisis doesn’t always look like an emergency. Sometimes it’s a single moment when your world shifts: an unexpected grade, a job loss, a friendship ending. Crisis is whatever crisis feels like for you.

–

Crisis lines are available across British Columbia 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you or someone you know needs help, please call:

9-8-8 (call or text)
310-6789 (no area code needed)
1-800-SUICIDE / 1-800-784-2433
604-872-3311

MEDIA RELEASE: The Crisis Centre of BC welcomes the Report on the Budget 2026 Consultation

Posted on September 11, 2025September 11, 2025 by sam

Vancouver, BC – September 2025 — The Crisis Centre of BC welcomes the Report on the Budget 2026 Consultation and applauds the Committee’s recognition of the urgent need to add a mental health option for 911 callers who are experiencing emotional crisis or distress.

“Right now, police or ambulance are automatically dispatched to suicide and mental health crisis related calls through 911,” said Stacy Ashton, Executive Director of the Crisis Centre of BC and Chair of the BC Crisis Line Network. “If we divert these calls to crisis lines, our responders can provide immediate emotional support, address the risk of suicide safely, and resolve crisis before it escalates.”

BC’s highly trained crisis responders already provide 24/7 support through established crisis lines, helping people in distress find connection, and hope. Fully 98% of our calls are resolved without the need for police or ambulance. By making crisis lines directly accessible as part of the 911 system, we could save public resources while ensuring people receive the right support at the right time.

The Centre urges the Province to use the momentum of the Budget 2026 recommendations to move forward with a fully integrated crisis response model:

Establishing mental health crisis lines as the fourth option within 911, alongside police, fire, and ambulance.
Reducing reliance on costly and often traumatizing emergency interventions in cases where a supportive, phone-based response is sufficient.
Positioning BC as a national leader in suicide prevention and mental health crisis support by leveraging existing, proven crisis line infrastructure.

“With the right investments, BC can ensure that every person in crisis receives care that is effective, respectful, and life-saving,” added Ashton. “The 911 reforms outlined in this report give us a unique chance to make that vision a reality.”

Media Contact
Stacy Ashton
Executive Director, Crisis Centre of BC
sashton@crisiscentre.bc.ca

Jeffrey Preiss
Director, Development & Communications
jpreiss@crisiscentre.bc.ca

Thank you for helping us celebrate our amazing volunteers!

Posted on August 22, 2025August 22, 2025 by sam

At the Crisis Centre, our volunteers are the heartbeat of everything we do. On August 19th, we came together for our annual Summer Jamboree to BBQ, eat, play games and spend time together! The event was a joyful celebration of our dedicated volunteers and, thanks to the generosity of several local businesses, it was extra special.

We’re proud to spotlight these caring community partners who donated prizes to help us say “thank you” in style:

Thank you so much to these businesses for being a part of our story. Each gift is a reminder of the strong community spirit that surrounds our work. We’re deeply grateful for these prizes which help us honour the volunteers who give their time, energy, and compassion to keep the Centre running!

Author: sam