Image: Distress Centre counsellors in 2017. The professional qualifications for Distress Centre counsellors have increased over 50 years, as has the complexity and number of clients they see. Less than 300 sessions in 1970 became 1,650 in 2010 and 2,900 in 2019. The majority of referrals now come from an online web form which was created...
Image: Counsellors at a team building event in 2000. Counsellors in the first half of the 2000s continued providing face-to- face meetings, referrals, volunteer training and volunteer supervision, practicum student guidance, as well as the administration of the Instrumental Needs Fund for families in financial crisis. Addressing changing needs Blair Collins, Counsellor responsible for the Drug Line, recalls: [caption...
Client confidentiality has always been foundational to Distress Centre’s work. Occasionally callers or counselling clients choose to make their stories public, to increase awareness of the service, or help with fundraising. It seems important to include at least one client story, as clients represent the heart and purpose of the work. Many thanks to Judy...
Counselling and public education continued to be a significant part of the Distress Centre/Drug Centre's (DC/DC) services. Fred Burns was Clinical Supervisor, and Suzanne Rosebrugh the Drug Counsellor. Along with five crisis counsellors they saw a variety of clients, usually within the week of them calling the crisis line. 1991 recorded 3900 hours of counselling offered, with 25% of a counsellor’s time spent in support of volunteers and 20% in public education. [caption id="attachment_19935" align="alignleft" width="411"] From...
Image: Dakota Douglas, Crisis Team Lead, working remotely from home. As the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic became undeniable in March, the Distress Centre leadership team and Board had a decision to make. For the safety and health of our volunteers and staff, we decided to completely close our office on March 17th, 2020. Behind the scenes,...
Counselling continued to be a key aspect of the Distress Centre/Drug Centre services. At the 10th anniversary reception, Jeanette noted that there were 1000 counselling and referral calls coming in a month, along with 65 drop-ins. On-site counselling had increased 32% over 1979. The Centre was still the only agency that offered free, confidential, immediate...
There are many ways to describe Distress Centre Calgary counsellor, Edwin Morales. Most people would describe Edwin as compassionate, enthusiastic, and driven. However, if you ask him, there is one unique word that can summarize him entirely: Perspective. Although, this word is not common to describe someone in their entirety, the word couldn’t be more...
In 2016, Distress Centre Calgary responded to 113,975 phone calls, emails, chats, texts and requests for counselling. People from all walks of life reach out to us for support day or night- parents, professionals, teens, teachers, seniors, to name just a few examples. What we know is that you can't judge a person's situation by...
Last year Distress Centre Calgary responded to 113,975 calls, emails, chats, texts and counselling requests from people in distress. From January 1st to July 31st, 2017 suicide presented on 3,925 calls which is 8.5% of our total call volume to date. On our online crisis service suicide presented itself on 19% or 956 chats, emails...
By Angela Danko When Shehla Shukoor moved to Calgary two years ago fresh off a Master’s degree in Social Work, she was in search of a place she could best apply her knowledge. As she began to meet people and inquire about opportunities for her, she started hearing more and more about an organization called Distress...
