More young people across Canada are turning to Kids Help Phone for support, with the organization reporting a sharp increase in overnight text conversations as mental health concerns continue to grow. The national youth mental health non-profit says overnight text conversations from young people were up 24 per cent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year. The 24/7 service receives a text message about every 90 seconds. “We always predict a small amount of growth. But to see a 20, almost 25 per cent growth in texting volume across Canada, from coast to coast to coast, tells us that something is going on with young people today,” Kids Help Phone president and CEO Rebecca Shields said. Shields said the increase reflects a range of pressures facing young people, with the negative impacts of social media among the contributing factors. “Geopolitical issues from forest fires, flooding, from climate change, pressure from school,” she said. “All the things that happen in addition to online bullying, online grooming and victimization of kids.” The Canadian Mental Health Association says it is seeing the same trend. “We’ve been in a crisis for a while, and this just continues to reiterate the need for more services and supports,” said Marion Cooper, the organization’s president and lead executive officer. ‘A cool calm’ For Anjana Sudharshan, those pressures became especially real in high school when a friend was experiencing a mental health crisis. “I found myself alone in the middle of the night, navigating how I could support a peer that was facing a mental health crisis,” Sudharshan said. “Kids Help Phone was there for me to guide my approach to supporting my friend.” Now, years later, Sudharshan serves on Kids Help Phone’s Youth Council, helping shape programs and services for other young people. “We’re young people from across Canada working with the organization to not just provide advisory, but to directly inform and help develop those services,” she said. The growing demand has also changed who volunteers hear from. Donna Czosnek, a volunteer crisis responder, said she expected to spend most of her time supporting young people. “A lot of my conversations are with adults,” she said. “All the more reason why this, this service, is so very important because we have diverse communities.” She said every conversation has the same goal. “We try to take them from a place where they might be very agitated, very heated, and we try to bring them to a cool calm,” Czosnek said.
