Hello Soozan. I'm glad that you asked. Most times you can find a crisis/distress/warm line by calling 211(no charge) and sometimes by looking in the front of your phone book.
I"ll explain the basic differences, although each one may be a little different.
Crisis Line, is exactly that, a crisis line. They have the means to put you in contact with various emergency services, shelters etc immediately. They are also mostly paid employees and they will call an ambulance/police etc if they think that you are suicidal. They do record what you say and who you are and they do have call display and while they do allow repeat callers, generally they really limit how much time they can talk.
A distress line generally means that they are volunteers and that because they are not paid professionals, they cannot give out medical advice. However they do have a lot of local knowledge, they have more time to spend with repeat callers and they are very compassionate.
When you said "I needed someone to talk to and didn't know where to turn, I felt I was exhausting my family and friends and even my counselor, I was even exhausting myself! But I needed a way to talk out the pain. "
That is one of the types of service that distress lines can be good at offering. I know that at the centre in my area some people do call up to 5 times a day and spend 80-90 minutes on the phone each day with various volunteers, because they have exhausted everyone else or have no one to exhaust. We can also offer crisis services, but as a volunteer we can only link you through to someone who can call an ambulance etc(the crisis line can do it while talking to you by sending an email direct to emergency services like 911).
Other services that we offer that a crisis line won't. Your cat/dog dies and you are extremely upset, we will listen and
commiserate with you. Your husband abuses you, we may advise you of your options, but we will also just listen if that's what you want.
Family problems, we can listen and if you wish advise where to get counselling. The only thing that we won't listen to are obscene items. Items that are offensive to the volunteer(some people will try and get their jollies by telling the volunteer they are F***ing idiot because they didn't answer the phone cheerfully enough). Anyone who advises that they have abused children in any way isn't allowed to talk (we get some weird phone calls).
I've done over 250 shifts and I've taken well over 5000 calls and I would estimate that 60% of them are regular callers. I can't think of too many situations that I've dealt with where I wouldn't listen confidentially, without judgement and if the occasion call for it, with sympathy. I only mention that as I'm just an average volunteer, we have people who have been doing a shift a week for 35+ years.
Distress and warm lines are not in the business of making judgment. Whereas a crisis line does. Crisis lines provide a valuable service, but they are forced by cost constraints and the law to operate in a much different manner. What they are really good at is if someone is in an immediate crisis and need direct help getting that help, they are the best. Of course, in my area, they have a budget if about 1 million and take maybe 3000 calls , whereas we take 12,000 calls a yr on a budget of 35,000.
Warm lines can be great too. Most warm lines are not open 24/7 and most don't offer the crisis services that we do. For example the MDAO operates a warm line called T.I.P.S. M-F 9.30-5.00 1-866-363-MOOD (6663). The Krasman operates a unique warm line . The support line is answered by individuals with lived experience with mental health concerns, addiction, and/or trauma. I have never called it, so I don't know what what their quality is like. 1-888-777-0979
Most distresslines are listed either under DCO
http://www.dcontario.org/centres.html , although there are some operated by a variety of other places.
Telecare of Greater Simcoe. 705-325-9534 or 705-726-7922
Telecare Peterborough 705-745-2273
Telecare Cambridge 519-659-5455
Toronto Distress line is sort of a hybrid distress/crisis line, they do have call display and they will call emergency services 416 408 4357
NISA warm line covers from Parry Sound to Sault St Marie and Timmins 1-866-856-9276
Sorry to be long winded, but they do provide a good service. Take Care. paul m
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) . Some of us(all perhaps) still have some sort of struggle with our lives, some are better (as in more well) than others and some are watching and trying to help loved ones. Some can work and some can't. Overall everybody is pretty understanding, which is why I'm still posting on a MDAO forum after 10yrs.