There’s been a surge in demand at Canada’s only national 24/7 mental health service for kids, and the numbers are even more startling in New Brunswick.
Kids Help Phone, the non-profit that offers free, multilingual and confidential support to young people, either by phone, text or online chat, says more youngsters are reaching out for mental health support in the middle of the night, with a 24 per cent national increase during overnight hours in the first six months of the year.
In New Brunswick, the uptick was more than double the Canadian average, 49 per cent.
With the start of the school year right around the corner, when kids typically use the service more often, the organization is pleading for donations.
Aaron Sanderson, the CEO for the Kids Help Phone Foundation, told Brunswick News there were many reasons for the huge demand.
“The fact young people are reaching out in such record rates sounds very harrowing, but it’s also incredibly hopeful,” he said in an interview from Toronto.
“Young people are reaching out to us, they’re telling us that the service works, they tell us they feel more in control of the issue they’re facing, that they would recommend us to one of their friends if they needed support, and they’re trusting us. So that is all good.” He said as a country, Canadians have helped to de-stigmatize mental health problems, so young people feel more comfortable asking for advice when they’re struggling.
“That’s also good. But in addition, I think it’s a tough time to be a young person.”
Sanderson, who’s 41, said that when he was growing up, he wasn’t in a 24/7 digital environment, as young people are today. The high amount of online activity and cell phone use have contributed to deteriorating mental health, he noted.
“Also, as a country, there are communities in crisis, from flooding, to fires, to violence and these are all contributing factors. For young people experiencing these disasters and moments of crisis, it’s not that it has to be in their backyard to cause that kind of anxiety and unsettling feeling. They’re consuming firsthand through social media.”
To help meet the demand, the Kids Help Phone Foundation just launched an urgent national fundraising appeal to help ensure young people across Canada have access to support.
Locally, there’s a big incentive. The J&W Murphy Foundation, set up by the Nova Scotia family that co-founded Mersey Seafoods, has promised to match any donations up to $250,000 before Sept. 11, for a total of $500,000, to add to Kids Help Phone’s annual $30-million budget.
While some of its funding comes from government, most – 60 per cent – is solicited from private donations.
Donations can be made at kidshelpphone.ca/urgent
“Our goal is to maximize the offer,” Sanderson said. “It would be used to hire and train new staff and volunteer members, support the technology and the clinical service hours.”
The organization serves young people from five to 29 years old. Anywhere in Canada a young person has a cell phone, landline or Internet, they can access one of Kids Help Phone’s different support services.
Last year, in New Brunswick, it answered 6,000 calls, texts or chat requests (the organization does not tally how many individuals it serves because many of the callers remain anonymous).
It has 425 staff members, most of whom are accredited counselors, including social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists.
In addition to that group, Kids Help Phone has almost 2,000 trained volunteers, supervised by clinical staff, who are part of its texting service.
Sanderson said some people think the service is only for kids in crisis. That’s not true.
“There’s so much we can do earlier on to be more preventative, to build resilience, and to have better outcomes with young people if we’re speaking to them when they’re first starting to experience a challenge, whatever that challenge might be in their life,” he said noting that the top issues young people bring up are anxiety and stress, loneliness and depression, and suicidal thoughts and self-harm.
Another top issue is navigating relationships, either with a family member or friend.
Sanderson said even with the increased demand, the staff and volunteers have been able to handle the load. But they are concerned that if they get even more requests, they won’t be able to keep up.
“We’re burning through more of that budget that we expected to be at this point this year. And what makes that also challenging is every back-to-school season, we typically see an increase in service demand.”
By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Aug 19, 2026 at 09:46
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