Walker Discusses New Community Care Line
During the November 5 meeting of the Lyons City Council, Lyons Police Chief Wesley Walker spoke to the council regarding the new Community Care Line, which works to connect callers from Lyons and surrounding areas with local clinicians and resources.
This new helpline, which can be reached by calling or texting (912) 585-7317, arose through the collaborative efforts of the Vidalia and Lyons Police Departments, Toombs County Sheriff’s Office, and Leigh-Anne White and Company.
“Just after the storm, the police department was getting a lot of different calls about welfare checks, streets crowded, power outages, and more. We were going out, doing our jobs, and answering those calls, and we got to noticing that a lot of people were really continued from page
struggling with just dealing with what was going on. Everywhere you went, there were trees down, power lines down, and homes destroyed – people were really freaking out,” Walker told the Council.
He shared that after seeing the need for help for the area, he wanted to utilize the behavioral health program that the law enforcement agencies already had, which provides two behavioral health specialists to respond to the area. Walker said he knew that two specialists would not be enough to handle the widespread damage within the area; so, he reached out to Leigh-Anne White and Company regarding the idea, and the organization quickly got to work.
Neena Bloxham spoke on behalf of Leigh-Anne White and Company, as she shared details of this new resource. “Chief Walker came to us with an idea. We have obviously all been through a pretty traumatic event and we knew the community would need help, but didn’t know exactly how we would present that help. So, when he came with this idea, we tried to jump on it as quickly as we could,” she began.
According to Bloxham, when an individual calls or texts the number, they contact a separate direct phone line, and after pressing 1 for the “community care line,” they will be connected to live clinicians. These professionals are available for contact 24/7, and rotate to ensure that someone is always there for those in need, even if it is after hours or on a holiday.
“The holidays are approaching and we knew it was going to be a tough time for a lot of people. So, we set the phone line up and have rolled it out. It is live and ready to go,” She emphasized. “[Callers] may be stressed, they may have anxiety, they may just be overwhelmed; I am overwhelmed from time-to-time just driving down the road because of seeing debris pile after debris pile. So, this is a way for them to either talk with someone who is trained or have someone to tell them what resources are there. It is a way for us to show the community that we are here if they need us.”
Walker added, “We didn’t want it to be a crisis line – we wanted it to be something more than that. Of course, if someone needs a counselor or clinician to talk to, it is available; but it is also available if someone is without food and needs help to know where to go, someone can tell them where to get food.”
He ended the discussion by emphasizing the connectivity this care line brings to the community, as individuals are helped by fellow citizens who have gone through many of the same hardships. “These are people answering this phone who went through the storm just like we did. It’s not somebody far off in Atlanta answering a line; it’s someone that lives here in Toombs County or the surrounding area that went through the storm, so they understand what these people are going through,” he explained.
For more information on the Community Care Line, contact the Leigh-Anne White and Company at (912) 585-5504. To access the care line, call or text (912) 585-7317.
