Numbers worth writing on the fridge

This page lists every helpline and resource named on this site, grouped by what you need them for. Write the important ones down — on paper, on the fridge. The person who needs them may not be the person whose phone is unlocked.

Emergency

Health advice, day or night

Info-Santé (Québec): 811. A nurse, 24/7, free.

Your own care team

Often the most useful calls are to people who already know you.

• Your pharmacy. For anything new, anything over the counter, and your sick-day hold list. No appointment needed. They see every prescription from every doctor, so use one pharmacy and say "type 1" every time.
• Your diabetes team. Before a steroid course starts, when doses need changing, and for your written sick-day plan. Keep their after-hours number with the rest of these.
• A registered dietitian. The single highest-value appointment after diagnosis. Many newly diagnosed people are never referred to one and don't know they can ask — ask your team for a referral if nobody has offered one.

Your diabetes team has heard all of it before, at every age — including about alcohol and drugs. Their job isn't to judge you; it's to keep your numbers safe around whatever you are actually doing.

Diabetes organizations

• Diabetes Canada: 1-800-BANTING (1-800-226-8464)
• Diabète Québec: diabete.qc.ca — carb-counting guides and practical tools in French

Poison centres — took too much?

• Québec: 1-800-463-5060
• Rest of Canada: 1-844-764-7669
• United States: 1-800-222-1222

Poison centres take calls about recreational doses too. They are not police, and they will tell you whether this needs an emergency department.

Alcohol, drugs, smoking and vaping

In Canada, for all ages unless noted:

• Drogue: aide et référence (Québec): 1-800-265-2626 — 24/7, bilingual
• NORS — using alone? 1-888-688-6677. They stay on the line with you, anywhere in Canada, at any age.
• Quit smoking or vaping: 1-866-527-7383 (Québec) · 1-866-366-3667 (Canada-wide)
• SAMHSA (United States): 1-800-662-4357 — 24/7, free, English and Spanish

NORS and the poison centres are the two most underused numbers on this list. Neither is police.

Young people

Under 30: Kids Help Phone, 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868 — 24/7. In French, the same service is Jeunesse, J'écoute.