Crisis Resources: What to Know Before You Need Them

It's a strange thing to plan for a bad moment while you're having a fine one. But that's exactly when it's easiest to do — with a clear head, no urgency, just five minutes to set something up you hope you'll never need.

In Canada, Talk Suicide Canada is available 24/7 by call or text at 988. It's free, it's confidential, and it's staffed by people trained specifically for this — not a general hotline, not a chatbot standing in for a person.

A few things worth knowing ahead of time: you don't need to be at your lowest point to use it. You don't need a script, a diagnosis, or a specific plan — “I don't feel safe and I don't know what to do” is a complete reason to reach out. And it's fine to hang up and call back if the first conversation didn't feel like the right fit; that's a normal part of finding support, not a failure.

If you're supporting someone else, the most useful thing you can do is often the simplest: save the number in your own phone too, and let them know you have it. Not as a way of handing off responsibility — just so it's one less thing they have to look up in a moment when looking things up is hard.

HowRU will always surface this resource the moment a conversation suggests you might need it — but you don't have to wait for that moment. 988 is worth saving today, on an ordinary afternoon, so it's already there on the day it isn't ordinary.