Mississippi Adds Anonymous Text Options to Mental Health Hot Line
January 20th, 2010
When seeking professional psychotherapy services or talking to a doctor may be impractical or unwanted, young people in Mississippi are able to rely upon professionally-run mental health hot lines for a variety of concerns. But some potential callers may still feel embarrassed about speaking with someone about their issues, a matter that may lead to a reluctance to obtain care. In response, Mississippi has launched the availability of anonymous texting and emailing options for its mental health hot lines, a move that is hoped to encourage youths in need to take advantage of the hot lines’ services.
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Comments
a great move in my opinion…there are so many people out there who are silently suffering from problems only because they hesitate to open up in the presence of a professional as they may not be very comfortable in sharing the matter with anybody.this option will be of immense benefit to that group of people.
It’s the modern world and mental health services need to move with the times. I hope more states follow Mississippi’s example.
This is a step in the right direction…providing services to the youth that seeks instant relief and instant services is the way forward…
Sure do hope that this helps the teen as well as adult population who may need help or guidance but are afraid to do so because they want to keep it a secret that they are getting help. There does not seem to be that many things that Mississippi gets ahead of the game with but I really do think that they have a winner with this program that the state is offering. Hopefully more states will see the potential good in this resource and will find a way to integrate this type of plan into the mental health services that they have to offer residents.
See what their website says that the article links to?
http://www.dmh.ms.gov/
“AnComm’s Talk About It service allows you to communicate anonymously with the Helpline Staff from this website or from your cell phone via Text Messaging (standard rates apply).” Couldn’t they have went that extra mile and set it up in such a way that the texts were free?
having help just a text message away and available at all times is just great.but things are very different for those in many other parts of the world.forget having professional help at you fingertips,it is hard for people to find help even if they go out and look for it! lack of availability of professionals and also lack of funding plays a part in the problem.
That would have been ideal if it wasn’t for the call charges. Imagine a kid running out of money on their phone while baring their soul. Still, partial funding for the program is better than none!
Perhaps they left it a paid service to deter prank calls from the teens and stop them tying up the lines and staffing resources with nonsense?
Joan that’s a very good point. The teens won’t want to waste too much of their precious text messaging allowance on practical jokes. That would make sense.
The potential problems caused by troublesome teens shouldn’t overshadow the troubled ones that are going to get much needed help. This is a splendid service and I applaud its introduction.
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