Utah (ABC4 News) – Intermountain Healthcare announced the launch of an Emotional Health Relief Hotline Thursday during Governor Herbert’s daily presser.

Intermountain Healthcare said the hotline was launched in efforts to help people struggling with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hotline number is 833-442-2211 and can be reached seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The hotline will be a free, new community call-in resource to help support patients, clinicians, and the public who are looking to address emotional health concerns during these challenging times.

The Intermountain Emotional Health Relief Hotline will offer callers guidance, tools, and referrals for people experiencing issues related to their mental well-being.

The hotline connects callers with a trained care coordinator who can provide appropriate self-care. The team of care coordinators includes navigators from Intermountain’s Behavioral Health Clinical Program and trained caregivers from the health system’s COVID-19 Call Center.

The hotline has been developed in collaboration with community partners, including Utah’s Department of Human Services and the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute (UNI) Crisis Line.

“At a time when distress and uncertainty are part of our common experience, it can be difficult to find strong emotional footing,” said Morissa Henn, community health director at Intermountain Healthcare. “These coordinated resources and caring teams can help bolster the mental well-being of our families, colleagues, and community.

In situations of acute or imminent psychiatric crisis, the care coordinator will stay on the line while connecting the caller to UNI representatives to deploy additional help and resources. For non-crisis scenarios, coordinators will help connect people to key resources needed such as employee assistance programs, local mental health authorities, domestic violence services, clinical treatment teams, and peer counselors.

“Just as we need people to have access to reliable medical information for COVID-19, we also need access to resources and support for the emotional and mental health stressors we are experiencing,” said Kim Myers, assistant director of mental health at the Utah Department of Human Services. “The Emotional Health Relief Hotline, in coordination with existing services, is an important addition to the continuum of services to support our whole health as individuals and communities.”

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