After 48 years, the London and District Distress Centre will soon be forced to close its doors.
The Centre reports that its two major sources of funding will be pulled by the end of the year. It had been receiving about $160,000 per year from the United Way as well as another $123,000 from the Canadian Mental Health Association. Executive Director Cheryl Legate says she believes the funding cuts are part of the Provincial government’s move to streamline access to mental health services to a single access point.
Legate says the funding from the Canadian Mental Health Association will be re-directed to ConnexOntario Health Services, and that similar call-based services for people in crisis will be available in London, Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford Counties. “We don’t know yet what’s it’s all going to look like,” she says of the future streamlined services. She is hopeful that the restructuring can be done seamlessly, without disrupting service to the thousands of people in distress who receive supportive listening when they contact the Centre.
Trained volunteers at the London Distress Centre answer over 20,000 phone calls per year, 24 hours per day. Legate says, “We have been able to assist people during their most difficult times and ultimately save people from further distress and crisis. With all the focus on mental health and wellness, the Distress Centre has been a solution-based program in our community.”
The London and District Distress Centre is expected to be dissolved by December of this year.
