It’s Drugs: Help and Referral’s birthday!

Montreal, April 27 2017 — “The Information and Referral Centre of Greater Montréal (IRCGM) is very proud to highlight the anniversary of Drugs: Help and Referral that celebrates today its 25th year of existence. The counsellors that worked there over the years have informed, supported and helped thousands of people with addiction problems or their close ones with its free helpline: 1 800 265-2626”, indicated Mrs. Pierrette Gagné, executive director of IRCGM.

In 1990, the Bertrand Report was submitted to the Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux du Québec(MSSS). Led by Mr. Mario Bertrand, the group was mandated by the Robert Bourassa government to present a clear picture of what the substance abuse situation was like in Québec. One of the recommendations from this report was to “ … implement a telephone Information and Referral Helpline, available 24 hours/7 days.

It is therefore, in April 1992, at the request of the MSSS that the Information and Referral Centre of Greater Montréal (IRCGM) inaugurated Drugs: Help and Referral (DHR). To this day, DHR is still managed by IRCGM and funded by the MSSS. It is a telephone service that is, free of charge, bilingual, anonymous, confidential and 24/7 and given to the population of Québec.

According to Mrs. Hélène Hamel, coordinator of DHR “Above all, it is a service that is human, offered by a team of very qualified counsellors, whose interventions are without judgement and filled with empathy, hope and accuracy, and especially confidence that the caller will be able to face his problems, provided we offer the proper tools for him to do so.”

The Information Centre of Reference of Greater Montreal celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. It offers bilingual information and referral services by phone, on-line and by printed directories to citizens and social field counsellors of the Greater Montreal. It manages the Referral Helpline for Seniors and two support, information and referral helplines, Drugs: Help and Referral and Gambling: Help and Referral and a program for compulsive gamblers, TeleCounselling.

Source:

Marie Vaillant

Directrice des communications

Téléphone : (514) 527-1388, poste 215