VOAWW – Behavioral Health Services
several months ago a person called in uh she was at the end of a Rob she’d been laid off from her job um she wasn’t sure that she was going to be able to continue to pay the rent on the three-bedroom apartment that she had for her and her kids um she wasn’t sure what was going to happen her kids were out of town um for the weekend and she kind of had it all planned out you know she was going to kill herself she was to the point where she actually felt like like her kids would be better off living with the person that they were with for the weekend than they would be with her that she was more harm to them um alive than she would be if she was [Music] dead any crisis where somebody is feeling compelled to call into a call center like a Volunteers of America is a self-defined crisis that could be anything from um an animal dying to um somebody hearing voices in their head or they’re starting to have thoughts that life is hopeless and they can’t live anymore well we’re able to provide people who call in is emotional support um we’re able to talk people through their immediate crisis and help them come up with some kind of a plan to get through the day and maybe get through the moment maybe get through the week until they can see their mental health provider the behavioral health umbrella includes our 24-hour day 7-Day a week crisis line which is staffed by Master’s level clinicians we’re the only region in the state that has a central one number entry into ongoing Mental Health Services we have online emotional support through chat and not surprisingly the people that are utilizing our chat Services the most are young adults and adolescents and teenagers um North Sound 211 which is our information and referral line um they get thousands of calls a year where some people are just not able to find those resources on their own so our 211 information referral specialist helped to navigate a pretty complicated system and get Services connected for individuals I had a a friend growing up um she was a a woman that was homeless that attended our church and I asked my mother one time you know she had all these friends and she had this community at the church at Large you know why why was she still homeless but she was schizophrenic and she was really struggling to get the services that she needed and so if you’re missing that element it doesn’t matter sometimes that you’re trying to meet those basic needs um because they’re they’re not at that that stable level to be able to accept those Services I mean of course you a person would rather call their best friend their mother their father their brother their sister but these people sometimes they don’t have that and it’s like literally we are the people that they need to call in order to get themselves back to that Baseline like I really did consider it a privilege to be there for that woman that night that woman who had lost hope it was a privilege to be there for her [Music]
Every hour of every single day, a team of highly trained, culturally and spiritually diverse professionals with a common purpose are committed to responding to all community members and their families in crisis and emergency situations, keeping consumers, emergency workers, and the community safe in the least restrictive manner.
For more information, or to make a donation, visit
www.voaww.org
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