Calgary’s Distress Centre is handling close to 150,000 interactions per year, with demand for mental health support remaining high. Today, Distress Centre Calgary looks to strengthen its approach to crisis response, using information from historical interactions to better shape prevention and intervention efforts for new ones.
Distress Centre Calgary has a new Chief Executive Officer, Matt Nomura, who began the role on April 15 of this year. Nomura says growing awareness and more open conversations around mental health are driving engagement with the organization, and Distress Centre Calgary is focused on ensuring people in crisis are both cared for and heard. He is also interested in improving how Distress Centre Calgary can respond to evolving community needs.
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Nomura’s appointment marks a new chapter for the organization. Previously, he was with MS Canada, a Calgary-based charity for people living with Multiple Sclerosis. Prior to that, Nomura spent close to six years with the Calgary Homeless Foundation as their Vice President of Strategic Investments and Community Impact.
“I started my career in finance,” he explains. “The first 12 years of my career were with CIBC. So working in the nonprofit world is deeply personal for me. When I made the switch back in 2015, it was very intentional.”
Nomura says for most people, our view on the world and mental health is based on the events that happen in our lives. Your personal life, your marriage, your finances, and your job really shapes the way that you look at the world, the way that you look at vulnerability, and your own mental health.
“When I think about why I joined the nonprofit world,” Nomura says, “It was to be a voice, to give back. I didn’t know what the nonprofit world was all about back in 2015, but I felt compelled to want to be part of something where you’re contributing to your community and you’re making change in a positive way.”
“One of the things that has always stuck out to me is the vision of the organization: everyone is heard. I think there’s such dignity and humanity in that vision. When you think about crisis response, listening is the core element of responding to a crisis,” he explains.
Listening also comes with responsibility. “Even while everyone is heard, there is also a responsibility to ensure what we’re hearing is shaping the way we deal with mental health crises in our city and province, and how we respond more effectively and more humanely. I think that’s really compelling.”
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Nomura says there’s still plenty of work needed to break down the stigma of mental health and have these important conversations.
“When you look at the actual numbers, it’s close to 150,000 interactions that we have as an organization in any given year,” he notes. “So I would say what you’re seeing is the conversation starting to evolve towards, how do you prevent, how do you work with, and how do you shape interventions to meet what’s happening? To me, that really stands out.”
Nomura says he doesn’t know if mental health is more of an issue today, or if we’re just so connected to everything in our world that everything’s more pronounced.
“I think back to when I was growing up. I didn’t have the pressures of social media, constant news on your phone every single day. I am curious how that’s impacted generations that have grown up with that. Mental health is not new,” he says. “But I would say being as connected as we are to what’s available in your hand every single day, that’s new. I wonder what those impacts have.”
Nomura says that Distress Centre Calgary has a responsibility when it comes to interactions that the organization has with individuals struggling with their mental health. It is important that they take the feedback they receive, and use it to start shaping their understanding of why crises happen in the first place.
Moving forward, Nomura says the organization is focused on integration, and making services as accessible and streamlined as possible. What is top of mind is ensuring that services are top notch, and meeting the needs of the Calgary community.
