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About Us

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  • Distress Centre Halton is a non-profit charitable organization that provides telephone support to people 365 days of the year. We are a unique service in that we train volunteers for front-line work providing emotional support and befriending to people in distress or crisis.

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  • Our service improves the health and wellness of people in our community and the quality of life of those who are feeling alone, isolated, and vulnerable.

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  • Distress Centre Halton has a volunteer Board of Directors, 5 full-time staff and 3 part-time staff. We have 2 locations in Oakville and Georgetown. Currently we have approximately 200 volunteers between the two Centres.

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Distress Line

The Distress Line is the core of our service offering. Our volunteers are trained to provide emotional support and encouragement, suicide risk assessment and prevention, as well as community resource and referral information.

TeleCheck

TeleCheck is our outbound call program that supports isolated seniors, people struggling with their mental health, caregivers, Alzheimer’s patients, clients awaiting mental health services, or people needing additional community mental health support. 

Speaking Engagements

We’re available to speak with your club, class, or groups about the services provided by Distress Centre Halton, or to teach courses on active listening skills, de-escalation techniques, and mental health in general.

Our Services

Services
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Our Team

Staff

Dara Eisner Clancy - Executive Director
Mark Howarth - Senior Manager, Administration & Operations
Kathleen Legaspi, BSW, RSW - Senior Manager, TeleCheck Program 
Linda Jaklich - Supervisor, Calendar & Shift Management
Victoria Bello - Coordinator, Volunteer Services
Rose Ford - Donor Management & Communications

Lauren Anastasi - Community & Volunteer Engagement, Hamilton

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And our 200+ trained volunteers.

Board

Gail Cartwright - Chair

Richard Darjes - Treasurer

Craig Redick

Feeroza Suchak

Izabela Kvesic

Jodi Dwyer

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Eric Hotson - Special Advisor to the Board

Florence Fiorino - Special Advisor to the Board

Kristin Madarasz - Social Media Advisor

Annual General Meeting Reports | AGM 2016/2017 | AGM 2017/2018 | AGM 2018/2019 AGM 2019/2020 | AGM 2020/2021 | AGM 2021/2022 | AGM 2022/2023

Our Team
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Our History

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Distress Centre Halton is an amalgamation of 3 small Centres that originated in the 1970s – Distress Centre Oakville, Distress Centre North Halton, and Telecare Burlington. In April 2019 the Centres legally amalgamated and officially became Distress Centre Halton.

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Originally, volunteers answered the phone lines on Friday and Saturday nights only. As the demand for the service grew, the hours were extended to 24/7, 365 days of the year. In 2022 we responded to 33,622 conversations.​

Our History
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