SHELBURNE, N.S. — The Shelburne County Health and Wellness Association (SCHWA) is launching a “homegrown initiative” that will give mental health services in the area a boost.
The Association is launching a Warm Line, which is an alternative to a crisis line and more of an intervention support. “It’s a form of social support, peers helping peers,” said Association Chair Kevin Grant. “Its not so much a help line… if you need someone to talk to whether you are dealing with mental health issues or not, or if you just need someone to talk to at some point, that’s what the warm line is there for.”
With a Vibrant Communities grant from the provincial Department of Communities Culture and Heritage, the SCHWA has hired Cindy Hagen as the Warm Line Coordinator, who is actively trying to recruit volunteers to help with the warm line.
Grant said realistically they need about 20 volunteers to get things going. “The more the merrier.” The plan is to establish locations in Barrington, Shelburne and Lockeport, where volunteers will be able to take warm line calls. That way, volunteers won’t have to travel very far. “They will be able to volunteer in or close to their own community.”
Grant said initially, the thought is the warm line “will be available about four hours in the evening and we think we’re going to start off with four days a week but the days and times will be adjusted to the need and the response as well as volunteer availability.”
Volunteers will be provided with international level training, said Grant, adding they are “going to be well trained and well equipped to help someone who calls in.”
Grant said the warm line “has been a homegrown initiative. No one else has been doing this anywhere in the province. We recognize the need. There’s a lot of mental health concerns and there’s not really anywhere to go. For anyone dealing without a family doctor, they have to go to the ER and even if the ER is open, they have to go through the process. That can be difficult and the wait times and so what could have started off as a simple problem just by having to go through all those motions and forms could potentially develop into something much more serious whereas if they had a resource like a warm line that they could call and talk to someone who can help them to some degree then we’re diverting people out of the hospitals and we’re reducing some of the people on the wait list just by being there to provide a support base for them.”
The SCHWA was started about two years ago. Getting the warm line project off the ground has been their primary focus, said Grant but “once that’s established, we have a couple of other projects we’ll pick away at.”
The SCHWA has also created a website which has a wealth of information. https://www.shelburnecountymentalhealth.com/
If anyone is interested on volunteering for the warm line, they can email [email protected]
