Island Helpline looks forward to 3-digit phone number for suicide crises
The manager of P.E.I.’s Island Helpline says having a 988 national suicide help number would be a step forward.
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CBC News ·
Posted: Jan 13, 2021 11:09 AM AT | Last Updated: January 13
The current 11-digit number may be hard to remember in a crisis, says Nikita Moriarity.(Shutterstock)
The manager of P.E.I. s Island Helpline says having a 988 national suicide help number would be a step forward.
Canada has a national suicide prevention line, but it is an 11-digit, toll-free number.
MPs voted unanimously in early December to offer a 3-digit number instead, and Island Helpline interim executive director Nikita Moriarity supports the initiative.
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For a St. Paul, Minnesota 911 dispatcher, 2020 would deliver a call he’ll never forget. Marty O’Herir caught a call in May from a distraught man driving 100 mph (160 km/h) on that state’s I-94. He told O’Herir he planned on dying that day either by crashing or taking on the police. For 22 long minutes, O’Herir kept the man on the line, discerning where he was as police plotted to intercept.
A hundred miles an hour, a man planning on dying, and one thin voice on the other end was the only thing standing in the way. When O’Herir learned the man was from Duluth, where he too was from, he started talking. “If you want to go to Duluth, I will ride with you. I am not letting you go,’” O’Herir said he told the caller. The man pulled the car over and credits O’Herir and the officer with saving his life.
Posted: Dec 29, 2020 11:39 AM CT | Last Updated: December 29, 2020
Samwel Uko was known for his big smile, kind heart and love of football.(Remembering Samwel Uko/Facebook)
Canadian-born NFL wide receiver Chase Claypool paid tribute this week to friend and former teammate Samwel Uko, who died earlier this year after being turned away from a Regina hospital during a mental health crisis. Uko s family says he died by suicide.
Claypool, who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers, posted photos of himself wearing a T-shirt with Uko s photo to Instagram earlier this week with the caption Break the Stigma and the hashtag #mensmentalhealth.
Claypool and Uko, who was 20 when he died, played football together in their high school years at Abbotsford Senior Secondary School in Abbotsford, B.C.
“As of last night when I received a call from a prisoner there were men who have prepared their rope to hang themselves. They have not indicated when but this suicide pact has been mentioned for two days now,” prisoner advocate Sherri Maier wrote. She alleged that guards are being unprofessional towards the inmates. She also alleged that in one instance, a guard assaulted a prisoner with his food tray. The allegations of guard misconduct are unproven. The union that represents penitentiary guards said in an interview Tuesday unrelated to Maier’s letter that correctional officers are doing everything they can to keep people safe and to minimize the spread of COVID-19. They said keeping inmates happy and active is in their best interest too, as it helps to reduce tension on the range and make their job safer.