Resources
Please note: the following resources are for crisis and informational purposes only and do not replace treatment with your physician and/or mental health professional.
Click on the bolded text below to be taken to external websites for more information.
24/7 Help & Crisis Supports:
Mental Health Helpline: 1-877-303-2642
Calgary Distress Centre: 403-266-HELP (4357)
Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566
Indigenous Hope Line: 1-855-242-3310
National Trans Lifeline: 1-877-330-6366
Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868
Crisis Text Line: Text CONNECT to 686868
Addiction Helpline: 1-866-332-2322
Family Violence – Find Supports: 310-1818
211 Alberta: Find Programs and Services in your community
Health Link: 811
Mobile Tools & Apps:
Text4Hope: Receive daily texts to help you identify and adjust your negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours due to COVID-19. To subscribe text HOPEAB to 393939
MindShift CBT: Uses proven strategies based on cognitive behavioural therapy to help you learn to relax and take charge of your anxiety.
ReachOut WorryTime: Helps to interrupt repetitive worries by setting them aside until later, so you don’t get caught up in them and can get on with your day. This means you can deal with worries once a day, rather than carrying them around with you 24/7.
Sanvello: Offers tools to help ease stress and anxiety, including a daily mood tracker, relaxation audio recordings, and peer support.
Happify: Complete happiness activities based on the principles of positive psychology, cognitive behavioural therapy, and mindfulness.
Wysa: Wysa keeps track of your mood with friendly chats and helps you fight stress and anxiety with tailored tools and exercises.
Smiling Mind: Free meditation app for young people and adults. It has been developed by a team of psychologists and uses mindfulness to boost calmness, contentment and clarity. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to help manage stress, resilience, anxiety, depression and improve general health and wellbeing.
Free Podcasts:
Free podcast from Yale: The Happiness Lab
Based on the psychology course that Dr. Laurie Santos teaches at Yale, the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history – “The Science of Well Being,” this podcast discusses the latest scientific research and shares some surprising and inspiring stories that will alter the way you think about happiness.
Free podcast from Dr. Maya Shankar: A Slight Change of Plans
Named by Apple as the Best Show of the Year 2021, host Dr. Maya Shankar blends compassionate storytelling with the science of human behaviour to help us understand who we are, and who we become, in the face of a big change.
Free podcast from Brene Brown: Unlocking Us
Brene Brown is a researcher and an inspirational storyteller. Her podcast is described as “conversations that unlock the deeply human part of who we are, so that we can live, love, parent, and lead with more courage and heart.”
Free Course:
This free online course through Coursera and offered by Yale is designed to increase well-being, happiness and productivity
Free e-Book:
Roadmap to Resilience by Donald Meichenabaum, PhD
This book discusses strategies to help increase coping and resilience (e.g. how to handle intense emotions, how to sleep better, how to develop and practice behaviours that improve resilience, specific ways to cope with coronavirus, etc).
Websites:
Anxiety Canada: Free Information and Resources to help manage anxiety
Center for Clinical Interventions: Free Self-Help Resources for various mental health problems (free workbooks)
Self-Compassion with Dr. Kristin Neff: Free information, Practices and Resources
Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley: Science-based practices for a meaningful life
UCLA Health: Free Guided Meditations
Mental Health Commission of Canada: Resources
Canadian Mental Health Association: Information, resources, free courses, peer support, and more. Community locations across Canada.
Emergency and Crisis Supports – Alberta: Help for abuse and bullying, emergency financial assistance, emergency housing, mental health, victims of crime, etc.