Where to get help

You do not have to sort this out on your own.

Numbers that work, people who answer, and services on the ground here. If you are in danger right now, start at the top of this page.

Right now

If you need someone tonight.

All four of these are answered around the clock, every day of the year. You do not need to be in a crisis to call one.

Emergency

Open all day and night

Someone is in immediate danger, not breathing, seizing, or badly hurt.

911

988 Suicide Crisis Helpline

Open all day and night

Call or text, anywhere in Canada, any time. You do not have to be in crisis to call.

988Text 988

Hope for Wellness Help Line

Open all day and night

Counselling and crisis support for all Indigenous people across Canada. Available in Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut on request, as well as English and French.

1-855-242-3310

Online chat at hopeforwellness.ca. Language availability varies week to week, so ask when you call.

Indigenous-specific support

Lines staffed by people who will not need you to explain the history first.

Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line

Open all day and night

For former students of residential schools and their families, including intergenerational survivors.

1-866-925-4419

MMIWG Crisis Line

Open all day and night

For anyone affected by the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

1-844-413-6649

Blood Tribe Department of Health

Health services for Kainai members, on and off reserve.

403-737-3888

Blackfoot Family Lodge Society

Blackfoot-led family support and cultural programming in Lethbridge.

403-320-0559

Native Counselling Services of Alberta

Court work, family support and healing programs across the province.

Drugs, alcohol and overdose

National Overdose Response Service (NORS)

Open all day and night

If you are using alone, call or text and someone stays on the line with you. They call for help if you stop answering. No judgement, no police unless it is needed.

1-888-688-6677

Spelled out, that is 1-888-688-NORS.

Alberta Addiction Helpline

Open all day and night

Information, support and referral for anyone worried about their own or someone else’s substance use.

1-866-332-2322

Recovery Alberta, Access Addiction and Mental Health

The way into addiction and mental health services in the south zone.

1-888-594-0211

Birchbark naloxone training

We run naloxone training regularly, and you leave with a kit. Free.

Mental health

Alberta Mental Health Help Line

Open all day and night

Advice, support and referral for any mental health concern.

1-877-303-2642

Health Link

Open all day and night

A nurse, any time, for any health question. Good first call when you are not sure how serious something is.

811

Birchbark mental health first aid

A course on what to do when someone is in crisis and you are the person who is there.

Young people

Bullying Helpline

Open all day and night

For young people and for the adults around them.

1-800-220-0000

Family violence and safety

Family Violence Info Line

Open all day and night

Advice and referral, in more than 170 languages, whether it is happening to you or to somebody you know.

310-1818

No area code needed anywhere in Alberta.

Aurora Sexual Assault Centre

Open all day and night

Support and counselling after sexual assault, whenever it happened. Formerly the Chinook Sexual Assault Centre.

1-844-576-2512403-694-1094

The first number is the 24-hour crisis intake line. The second is the office.

Housing, food and getting by

211 Alberta

Open all day and night

Call, text or chat and they will find you the right service. Housing, food, income, anything. More than 170 languages.

211Text INFO to 211

Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre

Open all day and night

Emergency shelter.

403-327-1031

SAGE Clan walking patrol

Volunteers out on the streets of Lethbridge every Sunday evening with water, food, warm clothes and naloxone.

Poison and plants

If somebody has eaten a plant they cannot identify, this is the number.

Poison and Drug Information Service (PADIS)

Open all day and night

Alberta’s poison centre. Call before you do anything else, and call 911 as well if the person is seizing, struggling to breathe or losing consciousness.

1-800-332-5678