Heat and the threat of wildfires are raising anxiety and worry, particularly for people in rural B.C.
According to the B.C. Crisis Line Network, the number of calls to the B.C.-wide mental health support line (310-6789) and the 1-800-SUICIDE line, have jumped by as much as 25 per cent.
“Calls to the mental health crisis line and suicide intervention line increase during heat waves,” Asha Croggon, with the network, said in a news release. “We saw an increase last year during the heat dome and the devastating wildfires, and we are seeing it happen again this year.”
The amount of the increase varies by region, she added. And rural and remote communities, “are especially impacted by the recurring threats from heat waves and wildfires as they try to cope with the trauma caused by last year’s wildfire that ravaged the Village of Lytton and other areas of B.C.”
During extreme weather, people reach out to crisis lines because such events can be tipping points in mental health, she added.The number of calls have also increased in the more metropolitan region of Fraser Health, but Thaddée Bergler, program manager with the Fraser Health Crisis Line, said it’s difficult with the stats from the Fraser region to correlate the increasing number of calls with specific disasters such as fires or floods.
