Reach Out Support Line – Terms & Conditions

Key definitions you will see on this page and what they mean:

• “the Service” or “ROSL” – Reach Out Support Line phone service (ROSL)
• “Terms” – the terms of service that you agree to by contacting Reach Out Support Line phone service
• “CMHA-YT” – Canadian Mental Health Association – Yukon Division

When you call or text the Service you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions (“Terms”).

Please read these Terms before using the Service. They contain important information about your use of the Service, and your legal rights and obligations. By using the Service, which is coordinated by the Canadian Mental Health Association – Yukon Division, you agree to the Terms described below.

By using the Reach Out Support Line service you agree to the following Terms of Service.

A. Nature of the Service

What is ROSL? The Reach Out Support Line (ROSL) is a confidential, non-judgmental, support line run by the Canadian Mental Health Association, Yukon Division that aims to create a safe space for individuals seeking assistance. You can call or text ROSL toll-free. ROSL responders are here to listen and provide help without judgement.

Who provides the ROSL Service? Responders are hired by the Canadian Mental Health Association – Yukon Division.

The Service is Not Health Care. Your participation in the Service does not constitute health care or treatment and no therapist-patient or other professional or therapeutic relationship is created. The Service is not a substitute for professional health or mental health care.

Contacting Emergency Services and Duty to Report. In certain circumstances, ROSL responders may, in accordance with applicable laws, engage emergency response (which could include medical, fire, police, or other first responders), child protective services, authorities and/or medical services if you or others are at risk of dying or serious harm.

While ROSL will make every effort to do this with your consent, in rare cases, the law permits us to do so without consent.

English. This service is available in English only. For support in other languages, you can find a list of helplines across Canada offering assistance in different languages here: Canada helplines and hotlines

For the Yukon and Available in Canada Only. This service is intended for callers and texters located in the Yukon and is available within Canada only. If you are contacting us from outside the Yukon, your message may still be answered; however, the level of service may be limited, as our ability to refer you to appropriate local resources may be reduced outside of the Yukon. For example, ROSL responders are unable to contact emergency services outside of Canada

No Payment Necessary. The provision of the Service is provided to you at no cost. No payment to CMHA-Yukon is required to send and receive voice calls and text messages to ROSL. However, standard voice calling rates from your wireless and/or mobile carrier may still apply. You are responsible for any costs related to sending or receiving a voice call or a text message, and any other costs associated with leveraging the Service.

B. Terms and Conditions

By using the Service, you agree that:

• You will not text, send, or otherwise communicate any data or other content that:
  • you know or have reason to believe contains any computer viruses, worms, malicious code, or any software intended to damage or alter a system or data;
  • you do not have the lawful right to communicate;
  • is false, intentionally misleading or impersonates any other person;
  • is harmful, racist, hateful, discriminatory, abusive, or criminal;
  • violates any applicable laws; or
  • infringes, violates, or otherwise misappropriates the intellectual property or other rights of any third party.
• You will not always be able to talk or text with the same ROSL responder each time you call;
• You will not be able to request to speak to a particular person or request to speak to someone of a particular race, ancestry, place of origin, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, age, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity;
• You will comply with all applicable laws including the laws of the area in which you are present while using the Service.

Zero Tolerance Policy. CMHA-YT has zero tolerance for any conduct or behaviour that is considered discriminatory, harassment, racist, abusive, threatening, or disruptive. If you engage in such conduct or otherwise misuse the Services, CMHA-YT, at its discretion, has the right to terminate or limit your right to access and use the Service. ROSL Operators and CMHA-YT may directly inform you of a limit or termination of service.

Right to Terminate. ROSL Operators and CMHA-YT may, in their sole discretion, limit or terminate your right to use the Service at any time without notice. In the event of termination, you are no longer authorized to access the Service. ROSL Operators and CMHA-YT may contact you directly to inform you of a limit or termination of service.

Modification to the Service. CMHA-YT reserves the right at any time, and from time to time, to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service. CMHA-YT may provide notice to you out of courtesy, but that does not obligate us to provide notice for any subsequent amendments to the Service. CMHA-YT and ROSL shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modifications, suspension, or discontinuance of the Service or any part thereof.

C. Your Information

CMHA-YT is committed to the confidentiality and security of the personal information you provide to us as part of the Service. Personal information is “information about an identifiable individual, either alone or when combined with other information”.

I. Collection, Use & Disclosure of your Information

We will limit the collection of your personal information to only what is necessary for the purposes set out in these Terms. For example, we collect your phone number when you call ROSL. While you are not required to share other information with us in order to receive service, you can choose to share personal information with the ROSL responder, such as your name, age, sex, or gender identity. We will also share your information with other ROSL responders to access only as necessary (e.g., for follow up or if you call again in the future).

CMHA-YT will only collect and use personal information to deliver the Service and for quality assurance, training improvement and evaluation of ROSL.

Any use or disclosure of de-identified data by CMHA-YT for research purposes requires approval from an external research ethics board. We may also disclose your information if the law permits or requires us to do so.

Continuity of Service. If you reach out to the service more than once and identify yourself to us, responders who answer your call or text may be able to see information about the previous times you have contacted us. This is so they can provide better support to you.

Purposes. You are entitled to know the purposes for which we use your information. If we want to use it for a new purpose, we will ask for your consent unless the new purpose is permitted or required by law.

II. Recording/Monitoring

Calls and texts to the Service may be monitored and/or recorded and/or transcribed for quality improvement and training purposes.

III. Sharing of your Personal Information

Except as described in these Terms, CMHA-YT will not share personal information without your expressed consent, however, there are some important exceptions, including for emergency response (which could include medical, fire, police, other first responders, or child protective services) if you or someone you are calling about is at risk of serious harm.

Your personal information will not be sold.

CMHA-YT may employ individuals and third-party vendors such as technology providers to facilitate or provide the Service on our behalf. These third parties have access to your personal information to perform tasks on our behalf and are contractually bound to treat your information confidentially and securely, and not to use or disclose without authority.

IV. De-identified and Aggregate Information

Personal information does not include information that is aggregated or de-identified.

“Aggregated” means data that combines individual-level data to create large data sets about many people without revealing personal information. We will only share aggregated data about ROSL callers, but never in a way that could identify specific individuals. For example, we might share how many people contact ROSL per year.

“De-identified” means data that has had any identifying information removed (e.g. name, location, etc.).

CMHA-YT may de-identify or aggregate personal information (in such a way as to ensure it is no longer identifiable) and use it for these purposes:

• monitoring, implementation, and management of ROSL and its operations including incident/complaint management;
• performance measurement and service-level reporting (i.e., call answer rate, speed to answer);
• fulfilling government reporting obligations;
• conducting research in accordance with a research protocol reviewed and approved by a Research Ethics Board and applicable laws; and publications

CMHA-YT may share de-identified or aggregated information with funders, government entities, researchers, or third parties to help provide and improve the Service and to better understand and support individuals in crisis. We will require any entity that receives such de-identified or aggregated data to abide by privacy and security obligations to protect such data, to not further share de-identified information or to attempt to re-identify anyone, and to immediately notify CMHA-YT of anything that could be considered a privacy or security breach.

A human responder will always answer your call or text. After the interaction concludes, CMHA-YT may employ advanced analytics, such as machine learning or artificial intelligence, to better analyze de-identified data.

V. Storing Your Personal Information

CMHA-YT will retain personal information as required by law, and in accordance with a ROSL retention schedule.

CMHA-YT may store de-identified or aggregated information for as long as we deem necessary.

VI. How is Your Information Protected?

CMHA-YT takes the privacy and security of your information seriously.

CMHA-YT has privacy and security safeguards in place to protect the security and confidentiality of personal information in its custody and control.

VII. No Guarantee

Despite these privacy and security procedures, any data transmission over the internet, telecommunications platform or otherwise cannot be guaranteed to be completely secure. As a result, while CMHA-YT strives to protect your personal information, we cannot warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. You agree to use the Service and submit information at your own risk. You agree that CMHA-YT has no liability regarding unauthorized access to the Service and information provided by you.

D. Use of Service at Your Own Risk and Other Disclaimers

Use of the Service at Your Own Risk. CMHA-YT, and its directors, officers, employees, representatives, privileged health care practitioners, volunteers, service providers, agents, sub-contractors, or any other entities with whom CMHA-YT contract with (collectively the “Representatives”) are not responsible for any decisions, or results of the decisions that you or a third party makes while, as a result of, or after participating in the Service. This includes whether you or a third party choose to seek or not seek professional care, health care or to modify or terminate specific treatment that you or the third party are currently receiving based on the information provided by the Service. You and/or the third party are responsible for all decisions you and/or the third party may or may not make during and after using the Service and assume all risk related to those decisions. CMHA-YT and its Representatives shall have no liability for 1) actions taken by you or a third party, or not taken by you or a third party, or 2) the unavailability of the Service.

The Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. CMHA-YT and its Representatives will maintain a professional standard of care. However, CMHA-YT and its respective Representatives expressly disclaim all warranties or representations of any kind, whether expressed or implied, and make no warranty or representation that the Service and Other Distress Line Services will: A) meet your requirements; B) be available, uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; or C) meet your expectations.

The foregoing disclaimers of liability apply to all damages or injuries, including those caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect or delay in operation or transmission, whether for breach of contract, tortious behavior or any other cause of action.

F. General

Entire Agreement. The Terms constitute the entire agreement between you, CMHA-YT and ROSL, and govern your use of the Service, superseding any prior version of these Terms.

Waiver and Severability of Terms. The failure of CMHA-YT to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction or arbitrator to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court or arbitrator should endeavour to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms remain in full force and effect.The failure of CMHA-YT to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction or arbitrator to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court or arbitrator should endeavour to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms remain in full force and effect.

Governing Law. These Terms are governed by the laws of Yukon, Canada and these laws apply to your use of Service, notwithstanding your domicile, residency, or physical location. Any dispute between you, CMHA-YT which cannot be resolved will be referred to the courts of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada and to no other place. You agree to be bound by the laws of the Yukon.

G. Changes to the Terms and Conditions

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace any of these Terms at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting. Each time you access the Service you will be presented with the current Terms for review. You must agree to any modified or updated terms to use this Service. If you do not agree to the new Terms, in whole or in part, please stop using our Service.

H. Contact Us – Questions or Feedback

If you have any questions, including about the privacy and security of your information or these Terms, please reach out to Contact Us – CMHA Yukon

ROSL appreciates any feedback. If you have any comments or suggestions, please share it with us at Contact Us – CMHA Yukon