Calls are up 1,000 per cent year over year at the Toronto Seniors Helpline (TSH), a free Toronto-wide hotline that provides seniors and their caregivers with mental health, financial and other supports.

The hotline, which can be accessed by calling 416-217-2077, has been running in overdrive for the last two weeks since the City announced its membership in its mental health support strategy for residents during the COVID-19 crisis.

Over the Easter long weekend, TSH received close to 500 calls. There were just two staff members on duty that weekend to deal with all of those requests for assistance.

For context, last year on Good Friday, 20 calls came in to the hotline.

“This year on Good Friday, we had 270 calls. It was overwhelming,” said Rochelle McAlister, WoodGreen’s senior manager of seniors mental health and addictions, and community care.

The east-end social service agency operates the Toronto Seniors Helpline in partnership with the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), LOFT Community Services, Reconnect Community Health Services, South Riverdale Community Health Centre and Haven Toronto.

WoodGreen has since brought on five additional staff members from the Toronto Central LHIN to help manage the massive influx of calls.

McAlister said callers are mostly concerned about money, how they can access government benefits, how they can get their taxes done, how they can access food, evictions and what they should do if they feel sick or even suspect they may have coronavirus.

“Seniors are also feeling isolated. They’re just feeling lonely and want someone to talk to,” she said, adding it seems COVID-19 is “intensifying everything.”

To respond to this need, about two weeks ago WoodGreen started up a "friendly calls" program manned by staff members and volunteers. They’re also working on creating activity kits and setting up virtual group bingo sessions.

Ashnoor Rahim, the vice-president of WoodGreen’s Community Care Unit, said the agency is paying close attention to both the immediate and longer-term needs that are coming to light through the seniors’ helpline and responding accordingly.

In the short term, they’re working to ensure “trusted partners” like the Red Cross, Second Harvest, City of Toronto and Michael Garron Hospital can be relied upon to assist seniors who reach out for help.

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Rahim also said the high level of calls has prompted WoodGreen to advocate for a provincial or even a national hotline for seniors, who make up the largest population in Canada.

Launched in 2016, the Toronto Seniors Helpline is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends and statutory holidays. The service can also help seniors is crisis by connecting them to the Crisis Outreach Service for Seniors (COSS), another WoodGreen-run initiative that provides on-call mobile crisis intervention and outreach service for older adults (65+ years) living with dementia, addictions or mental illness in need of temporary, short-term support to live independently in the community. Unlike many similar organizations, the COSS team is continuing to provide face-to-face visits to seniors in crisis during the COVID-19 outbreak.