Two months ago, Jermaine Saunders called the number he'd been given by a friend, and Jaimee Moffitt picked up.
"She was very helpful - the first thing she said to me was 'What can I do to help?' That was something I'd been waiting to hear for a while," he said. "There was no judgment. I had been battling the disease for over three years. I was addicted to opiates."
Today Saunders is in rehab at Recovery Point, the men's long-term, peer-to-peer rehabilitation center in Huntington. He was connected with Recovery Point with the aid of Moffitt and 844-HELP4WV, the first statewide 24-hour substance abuse and mental health call line, launched six months ago as a way to connect West Virginians with recovery services in the region.
Moffitt, a Charleston native and substance abuse counselor who has been sober for more than three years, is one of the recovery coaches who staff HELP4WV, which operates 24/7 and already has taken 1,100 calls since its launch in September.
HELP4WV is a collaborative effort between First Choice Health Systems, a West Virginia-based company that runs programs like the 1-800-GAMBLER help line and the health insurance assistance line 1-844-WVCARES, and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
The help line is funded by a $550,000 annual grant from the West Virginia Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities. It offers substance abuse and mental health treatment referrals, appointment reminders, directions to treatment facilities and transportation assistance. It also provides follow-up calls after the first treatment appointment, the first month and the first three months of treatment.
The helpline has medical personnel on site at all times and the ability to dispatch local police officers to perform safety checks.
"We like to do 48-hour, one-week and one-month follow-ups, and the reason we do that is because we want the person to know that there's somebody out there who cares about them and wants to see them succeed, but we also want to make sure they went to their appointment," Moffitt said.
"If they didn't go to the detox or to their appointment, we want to know why, because we report everything in our database to the Governor's Office, and that helps us see a little more on where the gaps in treatment are, whether it's insurance, transportation or they just didn't feel ready. Whatever the reason, we want to know, so we can try to fill in those gaps."
The line has received calls from 54 of West Virginia's 55 counties, and a majority of the help line's callers are from the Southern part of the state, according to Jeremy Smith, outreach coordinator for First Choice.
"The calls are picking up more and more every month; I think a lot of people didn't really understand how useful the call line would be when it was first launched, and now we're seeing some really great success," Smith said. "Before, when people wanted to find treatment for substance issues, they really had no idea how to start the process, so they might make one or two calls they knew of near them, get discouraged and stop looking."
First Choice is able to connect callers to one of more than 900 treatment facilities across the state, Smith said. The average call includes a live transfer that connects the caller to a facility that fits their need for treatment, and the helpline can guide callers into treatment during their initial call, Moffitt said.
"We have been very blessed and very fortunate in starting the process, which is almost always detox, and we can almost always get them in the same day they call," she said. "I think the longest I've seen someone have to wait is two or three days."
Sometimes callers aren't ready to enter treatment right away, Moffitt said, and some will call multiple times before agreeing to enter treatment.
For those who aren't ready to talk over the phone, HELP4WV offers on online chat option on its website, www.help4wv.com, and its phone number, 844-HELP4WV, is reachable by text.
For Saunders, his call to HELP4WV made the difference.
"I'm learning to deal with the disease every day," Saunders said. "Having someone who already knew what I was going through and didn't pass judgment helped because, if you were to talk to anyone else who doesn't know what the disease is about, they look down on you instantly, and it makes you feel less-than. You stop looking for help, and you start hiding what you're doing better. With the helpline, you don't have to hide anything - they already know what you're going through, and they want to help."
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.