OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – Help4WV mental health and addiction helpline recently celebrated its fifth anniversary.
In the last 5 years, Help4WV has helped over $50,000 West Virginians battling with mental health and addiction.
“We run a lot of the social helplines around the state. If you’re driving around and you see an 800-number that offers help to you and your family, we do most of those,” Outreach Coordinator Jeremy Smith said.
The program acts as a one-stop-shop for anyone in the state seeking treatment for addiction or mental illness. The program was developed in 2015 when a series of task force meetings identified that community members felt the treatment was difficult to access and navigate.
“Everybody knows that West Virginia is really suffering when it comes to addiction so anytime a new program can be implemented that helps address that issue and you actually see results from it just makes it that more special,” Smith said.
Nearly half of help 4 West Virginia staff is in recovery themselves. Several staff members even started their own journey into recovery by calling the helpline.
“We know everybody to know about this service because even though we have been around for five years and helped over 50 thousand people there are still people out there that may not know about our program. So what I want them to know is if someone is dealing with an addiction problem and they are trying to find the help we need to be their first call because we’ll be able to get them linked up with treatment,” Smith said.
The helpline is available 24/7 and it can be accessed by calling 1-844-help4wv, by texting 1-844-435-7498, or by chatting online at www.help4wv.com.
