Clifford Beers CEO Alice Forrester: New warm line is open.
Clifford Beers Clinic has set up a new “warm line” for New Haveners to call if they need information about the health impacts of the novel coronavirus, if they don’t know where to pick up food during the current public health and economic crises, or if they simply want to talk to someone because they’re stuck at home all alone.
Clifford Beers CEO Alice Forrester made that announcement Tuesday afternoon during Mayor Justin Elicker’s daily coronavirus-related press briefing, held online via the Zoom teleconferencing app and on YouTube Live.
Forrester and Clifford Beers staffer Shayla Moye said that the local mental health clinic has set up the “warm line” as a new initiative to provide peer support for any member of the general public struggling during the present crises.
Moye said that 12 trained peer support specialists will be manning the phone lines from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays.
The number is (203) 287‑2460.
Call it a “compassion line,” Forrester said.
“People who need to talk to someone, who are living alone, can reach out to people to talk about their concerns.” They can also ask about where to get a variety of resources necessary for this new era of mass unemployment and social distancing.
Forrester said the new warm line opened on Monday, and has already received a number of calls. Anyone can call. The service is free.
Moye said that emergency calls will be redirected to 2 – 1‑1 or 9 – 1‑1. For less urgent calls, the Clifford Beers staffer who picks up the phone will simply ask how the caller is doing, and then let the caller direct the course of the convesation.
“We just want to be compassionate,” Moye said. “We want to be an ear for the community.”
Forrester and Moye said that San Francisco and New York City have established similar “warm lines” — not as a way of providing expert public health information about the coronavirus, but to help redirect members of the public to reliable sources of information, and to help them access other resources like food.
Forrester said Clifford Beers is working with the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and with the Connecticut Mental Health Center on the venture.
“We’ve never done a warm line,” she said. She said the clinic will likely maintain the line for quite a while to come.
Click here for more information about the warm line.