How much would the Vancouver Island Health Authority really save by consolidating six community crisis lines into one Island-wide service?

According to Alan Campbell, VIHA's director of Mental Health and Addictions Services, it would save about 10 to 15 per cent of the $890,000 the health authority currently spends on six crisis lines (according to information from Campbell River Family Services, which operates the local crisis line).

That's between $89,000 and $133,500, not even the full salary of a VIHA executive.

Yet apparently, it's enough to put the new crisis line plans out to tender – it's already up for bids on the provincial government's website – and to start figuring out how to make it happen by March, 2010.

"What you're going to lose in each community, you can't put a price on that," Camille Lagueux, executive director of the family services society, told me.

That may be true, but I don't want to fall prey to emotional arguments here. Because at the end of the day, it's numbers that matter to the people who make decisions, not emotions, or even common sense. So for a sense of comparison, I looked up some numbers for the Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of British Columbia, which serves Vancouver, Burnaby, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, the Sea-to-Sky Corridor (Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton), the Sunshine Coast and Powell River.

The centre operates the 1-800-SUICIDE crisis line in B.C. Its total expenses last year were $1.1 million, and the organization helped 38,923 people through phone calls, Internet chats and e-mails. That works out to a cost per person helped of about $28.

By way of comparison, the Campbell River crisis line costs about $100,000 per year to operate, and helps roughly 3,000 people per year – about $33 per person.

It's important to note that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority only funds about 22 per cent of the crisis intervention centre's costs – $231,000, about $6 per person. The rest of the organization's funds come from gaming funds, grants, donations, municipal governments and the United Way.

I bet VIHA would love this funding arrangement, considering it spends almost five times that amount on the same service. Maybe it could help fund the existing 1-800 number (if the crisis intervention centre submits a bid), contributing enough money to add phone lines and staff to serve the increased call volume from Vancouver Island. Surely that would save more money than 10-15 per cent, and extending toll-free crisis line services to every community on Vancouver Island would be a good thing.

But the 1-800 service relies on donations, and that's risky. The 1-800-SUICIDE number in the United States has seen donations dwindle from $1.1 million in 2003 to $343,000 in 2006, and earlier this year, would have been disconnected if not for government intervention. Lagueux told me crisis line numbers should rely on core funding, not donations, and she's right. They save lives, and are too important to be subjected to the ebbs and flows in donations.

One final thought – there's an interesting number in the press release from VIHA announcing the bidding process: "The new crisis line is expected to receive 45,000 calls a year," it says, adding that two-thirds of calls will come from larger centres on Vancouver Island.

That's interesting because the crisis intervention centre's 1-800-SUICIDE line and distress line only received 23,505 calls last year from the Vancouver, Burnaby and Sunshine Coast regions, serving roughly the same population as Vancouver Island. Why would the new crisis line be taking twice as many calls as the Lower Mainland centre? Do Vancouver Islanders call the crisis line twice as much?

The numbers just don't add up, and certainly don't provide justification for getting rid of local services that help people in need. Surely VIHA can find better ways to cut its costs.

Again, the amount it's looking to save is about the same or less than an executive's salary. Maybe they should at the executive board for savings, instead.