Katherine Hay is the president and CEO of Kids Help Phone, which provides mental health support to youth across Canada. During the pandemic, her organization has seen a huge spike in calls, texts and online messages. Hay spoke to Toronto Life about what’s causing the surge and how Kids Help Phone mobilized to meet the increased need for support.
How has the pandemic affected what you do at Kids Help Phone?
During the first two or three months after Covid hit, we saw a 350 per cent increase in calls. We didn’t go dark for even one minute. When the pandemic hit, we didn’t say, “Well, we better start innovating.” We were built for something like Covid. We offer several different services: our phone line; our text line, Good2Talk; and a crisis service. Though it’s still human-to-human communication, our crisis text line uses machine learning to triage based on a texter’s severity of need. It looks for particular words that are more likely to indicate that a texter is in
Kids Help Phone saw a 350% increase in calls during COVID
CEO Katherine Hay breaks down the surge in demand for support during the pandemic. Haley Steinberg, Toronto Life
Katherine Hay is the president and CEO of Kids Help Phone, which provides
mental health support to youth across Canada. During the pandemic, her organization has seen a huge spike in calls, texts and online messages. Hay spoke to Toronto Life about what’s causing the surge and how Kids Help Phone mobilized to meet the increased need for support.
How has the pandemic affected what you do at Kids Help Phone?
Ontario will offer online learning for the next school year, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Tuesday, though he offered no news about whether or not students might return to in-person classes this spring.
Ontario Announces Funding for 2021-2022 School Year – May 4, 2021
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce speaks with reporters at Queen’s Park after outlining details of the province’s education funding for the next school year. Over $2 billion will be provided in new support for schools and students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding includes a commitment of $85.5 million to provide mental-health support for students year-round. Ontario will also continue to offer the option for virtual learning next year. The minister is joined by Robin Martin, parliamentary assistant to Health Minister Christine Elliott, and Katherine Hay, president and CEO of Kids Help Phone. (no interpretation)
TORONTO, Ont. - It remains unclear when and if Ontario students will return to the classroom this year but the provincial government will be providing online learning options for families next September.
During a media briefing from Queen’s Park on Tuesday, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said the province will continue to follow the advice of Ontario’s top doctor when it comes to permitting students to return to schools.
“I know for so many people in the province, we want to get kids in school. But the fact of the matter is the chief medical officer of health’s advice hasn’t changed to the government,” Lecce said. “When we get updated advice, I assure parents and families, you will know it.”