Telecare Peterborough is a free, anonymous and strictly confidential 24-hour call line for people in need of a friendly person who will listen. Our phones are answered by volunteers who are good listeners, enjoy talking to people and are trained to handle crisis situations.
Telecare volunteers and callers represent a broad cross section of our community.
It is our vision that every person who calls will have access to a caring, empathetic and non judgmental listener.
Our mission is to support and strengthen Telecare services to our clients and volunteers by developing and maintaining effective crisis intervention and support.
- one of 4 Telecare crisis centres in operation in Canada, waiting to take calls from people in need of a listening ear
- affiliated with Telecare Distress Centres of Canada and Life Line International
- to listen to those in need
- to offer the distressed, the lonely and the despairing immediate contact by telephone with someone who cares
- to give callers renewed courage to live and to cope with personal problems.
- Telecare Peterborough is available night and day, 24/7.
- We listen with care and understanding.
- We respect the anonymity of callers and offer confidentiality to all.
- We do not judge our callers or their circumstances
- We refer callers to community agencies for further assistance
- We are a friendly voice in a time of need
Telecare Distress Centre of Peterborough (Telecare Peterborough) began as an ecumenical outreach. The original goal for volunteers was to allow caring individuals a chance to share their compassion for others through the personal contact of the telephone. The intent was to help lonely, hurting people find hope and strength to carry on.
The Telecare model for telephone crisis intervention was based on the “LifeLine” service founded in Australia in 1963 and brought to Canada by the Rev. D. Bruce MacDougall who opened the first 24 hour volunteer based telephone distress centre in North America in Sudbury October 6, 1965. Telecare Peterborough has been in continuous operation since October 17, 1977.