CHRIS NEWCOMB: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Peer Into Recovery Podcast. I’m your host, Chris Newcomb. Today, we have a great guest. Her name is Erica Bullock, and she comes to us from Mental Health America of Virginia. She works specifically there as the Warm Line Manager for the Mental Health America of Virginia Warm Line. And she comes to us with a RPRS designation in 2016, a national MHA certification that she got in 2017. She also holds a BA in Fashion Merchandising from VCU and an MBA from the University of Phoenix that she received in 2021. And today, we’re going to be talking about what it means to be a Warm Line Manager and operating a Warm Line in the state of Virginia that is helpful to so many people who struggle with mental health challenges. So having said that, Erica, welcome to the program. How are you doing?

ERICA BULLOCK: I’m doing great. Hello, everyone.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Thanks for being on the program. So we’ll go ahead and get to it. What I’d like to do is just have you tell us your kind of story of origin and maybe any experiences you had as you were early on receiving services from peer specialist or what became peer specialist. And then we’ll talk some more about how that led to you, what you’re doing now at the Warmline Management position.

ERICA BULLOCK: Okay. Thank you, Chris.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Sure.

ERICA BULLOCK: So I started out, you know, I grew up, had a nice childhood and everything, and went off to college, had some mental health issues that I didn’t deal with as a child, but they resurfaced after I graduated college. And once I moved away from Virginia, for my first job after college, they resurfaced again. So they resurfaced to the point that I had a mental health breakdown, and I moved back to Virginia to deal with them. That’s where I met the Norfolk Community Services Board, because I’m from Norfolk, and I met some people there and became a volunteer. And through the volunteer, they trained me up, and that’s when I got introduced into the peer world. And I went to some of the regional peer meetings, and eventually got hired at the Chesapeake Community Services Board, and then at East State Hospital, and now I’m at Mental Health of America. So it’s been a journey, but it’s been, it’s not what I planned, but I will not change it for the world, because I love the peer world, they’re the most supportive environment that I’ve been in throughout my whole life.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: That’s amazing that you have been through that, and you love what you’re doing, and you love the peer world. And it’s the perfect setup for you to do what you’re doing as the manager of the Warmline. And so let’s kind of segue into that, and have our listeners hear about what it’s like in a day in the life of a Warmline manager. And I’m going to guess that there are probably a lot of moving parts to your job that you have to pay attention to each day.

ERICA BULLOCK: It is a lot of moving parts. It’s part mentor, part team leader, momager. Yeah. Sometimes you got to crack the whip a little bit.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: A momager.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So you’re a momager, which got to keep the kids in line. And by the way, there are no kids that actually work the line. This is all being a joke. Disclaimer. Make that disclaimer. So you have, let’s talk about personnel. So you would have to have warm line operators, obviously.

ERICA BULLOCK: Okay. Warm line operators.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Hold on. I’m going to get the warm line.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. Right. There’s an arm and a team leader. Yes. So we have two team leads, support, and seven in any given moment, seven to ten warm line operators.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Wow. So what is the typical training or preparation that goes into being a warm line?

ERICA BULLOCK: We’re working towards people getting their certification from DBHDS. So our goal is to get you certified and ready for the job corps. So we actually have an internship program for people who have graduated from that particular class, and you have to have 500 experience hours in order to be certified. So we get interns who are looking for the 500 hours, and they can get it with us or they can get it with another internship program. But we have a perfect rate that everybody has passed the test, the certification test that under me.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So that’s the momager.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You’re like, if you don’t, there will be consequences and repercussions. You’ve seen that movie Life.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Give me your cornbread. There’s going to be consequences and repercussions.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: It’s your 500 hours to do it right and get the test right. Right.

ERICA BULLOCK: All of our OCS were former interns. So like we, you know, as we’re molding you and shaping you to become a PRS, we’re looking at you also to see who could stay on or who could possibly be a future on-call support person if the need should arise. We encourage people to find out, you know, get out the nest and find their own jobs and stuff once they get to 500 hours. But every once in a while, we might have an opening for on-call support. And we typically pick from our interns.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. So getting an intern, getting an internship is a great foot in the door to potentially have a position arises to work as an OCS, I believe you called it.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. Yes. OCS.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Which stands for?

ERICA BULLOCK: On-call support person.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. On-call support person. So getting an internship is really potentially a great step toward working with the warm line on a more permanent basis if the positions are there, is that right?

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. If the position is there, yes. And we also, we do stick with you. We don’t just kick you out the door once you get your 500 hours. I give out recommendations and references and stuff. And if I find that a position is open, I will pass it along to the potential intern. And we kind of, you know, we give you like a warm hand off, you know, to the real world.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. So yeah, you’re not just like, hey, here’s your 500. See ya. That’s great though, because a lot of internships, it’s like one and done and then there’s no like, extra step to help really ensure that you want to see them. You want to see people succeed. You want to see them become CPRS and all of that.

ERICA BULLOCK: And we encourage them to start looking like halfway through. We encourage them to start looking for jobs and stuff like that. So we kind of will give you the nudge like halfway through, okay, now at 250 hours, you might want to start looking at, see what’s in your area and stuff.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: How do you find, well, it’s kind of mutual. How do you find volunteers and interns and workers and how do they find you? Is that like on a job board or websites or how do you find that?

ERICA BULLOCK: VPRSN, we post there.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah, Virginia Peer Recovery Specialist Network, yep.

ERICA BULLOCK: But we also stay in contact with the different trainers of the 72-hour PRS class as well. And we make sure the trainers know that we’re looking for interns. And we put the word out. We’ve done it on the Recovery Blast. We’ve done it with vocals and also different regional groups and stuff like that.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah. So you’re working in this multifaceted enterprise. And I think we were talking earlier and you were saying that for them to find you and you find them, they can go to the Virginia Peer Recovery Specialist Network website, which is vprsn.org or virginiapiererecoveryspecialistnetwork.org. They can also do, I think you said the Recovery Blast, is that right?

ERICA BULLOCK: Recovery Blast. Also, talk to your trainers as well. Your 72-hour PRS trainers.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. Is a great way for them to know about you guys and what you’re doing.

ERICA BULLOCK: And also, we do get some people who actually look at the MHAB website and they may submit a volunteer application that gets forwarded to me. And I’ll give you a phone call or an email, and we’ll have a conversation as to whether or not you would be a good candidate too.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. So when you’re training the folks, they’re training to become a PRS. And then what’s the training for them to specifically do warm line work? Is that a separate training that they do?

ERICA BULLOCK: So we put everybody through a week long orientation. And it’s usually 9-12, Monday through Friday for a week. We talk about MHAV, what we expect out of you, a little bit about peer supporting. Then we teach you how to actually take notes and answer the phone calls and support you that way. But we also have, we have two team meetings a month. And so we will ask, either ask somebody to come in and do a training, or we’ll have one of our team leads or OCSs talk about a topic that they’re specialized in. And then you’re constantly getting feedback and positive construction feedback and everything like that.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. It sounds like you have a pretty open environment of celebrating the wins and then encouraging the ways to make more wins.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah. That’s great because that really does create a team environment, which I would imagine spills over into the customer service when they’re having conversations because they know, hey, my manager really cares about me succeeding and I do this job anyway because I want people to succeed. So it carries momentum forward.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: To the callers.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So if I was going to call, I mean, what are there any topics I can’t talk about to someone?

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. So you can’t be disrespectful or rude. Okay. We stay away from religion, sexual politics and trauma because we’re not trained counselors. We’re peer recovery specialists, everyone that works the line and we’re not trained to deal with trauma. We don’t want to get you re-traumatized, but we also don’t want to traumatize ourselves as well.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: That’s an interesting point. Like, don’t bring me your bad mojo. No, I mean, in all seriousness, one of the tenets of being a peer is self-care first.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right. So you got to take care of you. And of course, as we know, that protects you from trauma, but it also I would imagine protects from burnout.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes, it does.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Because you’re not like, okay, here’s another another, you know, four hours I’m going to work where by the end of it, I’ll feel really awful about everything.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. And if you get a string of days like that, do you really feel bad?

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah. I bet that that can add up quick if you don’t have stop caps and to keep yourself healthy.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. And we do do check ins. We do two check ins a month. I will have a conversation with you about how you’re doing, how you’re taking care of yourself, how things going on the warm line and just get to know you a little bit. And that’s just to make sure you’re not burning out and also to make sure that you are progressing well as well. And then we also have supervision meetings once a month where you meet with me. And we talk about your progress. We talk about what’s going good, what could be improved, what you’re working on. And then we’ll go over a little bit of the PRS manual. And one thing I forgot to say about the training is that we do actually go through the manual throughout the internship. We communicate, everything’s done remote. So everybody’s working from home, but we use Google chat to communicate. One of the topics will be something from the manual.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay, so you’re not in an actual call center, everybody has different houses.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: That’s pretty wild. Like right now you’re talking about Eastern Central time, but no, I’m not in a big building, a call center. I’m in my living room.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. I’m in my easy chair.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: What would you say, what are some qualities that you look for that makes up a really good warm line operator?

00:12:44.575 –> 00:12:46.415
ERICA BULLOCK: We want go getters. We need people who are empathetic, people who really care about the callers, not just in it for the money or for the hours or to be certified. Well, people who really care. This one thing our callers say is that they get a sense of caring from our line. We also need people that know how to work a computer because we are remote and we do everything via computer.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So they can’t think of a mouse as a rodent that runs around the house.

ERICA BULLOCK: Exactly. Or Zoom is going down the street or something like that. Someone who can work independently, someone who has good work ethic, someone who is curious. Curious about life, curious about being a PRS, curious about the callers that they’re serving, just curious in general.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So I like the term, the way you just use to serve. Tell me more about your philosophy of serving people that call.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. So the people that call, they’re looking to us to help them get over the hump of something. Maybe their provider is away or they can’t get in touch with their provider, or maybe they don’t have a provider, or maybe they don’t know anything about the mental health industry or anything like that. We provide support, empathy, validation, information, resources. So I look at it as a service.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. Yeah. So someone’s calling a crisis and it’s not a crisis line, correct? There’s a difference.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. There’s a difference between a crisis line and a warm line. A crisis line, you call when you are in an emergency and you need instant help. A warm line is a little bit of a step down. You’re calling where you’re not feeling yourself, but you don’t need to immediately seek out help.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You feel a little overwhelmed, but not to the point where you can’t function. What would be a cautionary thing you would say to someone like, hey, you got this line of work, you got to know that this, this, and this happens. What would be one of the most challenging things you would say for being a warm line manager?

ERICA BULLOCK: Most challenging thing is putting it all together. So you got to do the schedule, you got to do payroll, you’re listening to your executive director, you’re listening to everybody. You’re not just answering to one person. You have to manage the needs of the whole line itself and keep things running.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So you have, it sounds like you have a lot of irons in the fire then.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You know, plates, spinning plates.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: To keep things going, which does make the workday go a little bit faster.

ERICA BULLOCK: It does. And it makes it interesting too.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah. You don’t have as time to stare at the clock and be like, oh my gosh, seven hours, four minutes and 38 seconds left until I’m done.

ERICA BULLOCK: No, you don’t have time for that. No.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Which is great because that makes the day, you enjoy it because you’re not looking at the clock. It’s what you love to do.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. And it also makes the week go by fast too.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah, I would think so. And I think, you know, work is work, but when you’re doing something that you have a passion for, it is not so much work as it is the labor of love.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. Yeah, I was thinking when I was talking about how, like the segment when we were saying how I’m living my best life, I was thinking that, you know, when I was planning out going through college and that life and everything, I had never thought about having a career just talking to people.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah.

ERICA BULLOCK: Because I’m using my own experiences to help somebody out. I never even knew that you could do, that was the thing.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right.

ERICA BULLOCK: So I’m just doing what comes natural to me. I love to talk to people and it just comes natural to me.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: I imagine that’s a great feeling because you don’t have to try.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You’re like, okay, now today I’m going to be personable, Erica, the best I can be. I’m going to use the 10 ways to be personable with somebody that are reading a book.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Nothing wrong with reading a book, but there’s a sense of natural.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Natural, because people, they can read natural from the way, just like they can read fake. What are some of the examples of, and I know the great thing about you all is the anonymity and confidentiality that what is said there stays there, and that sort of thing. Would you say that there’s a wide range of topics that people are dealing with, like something seemingly as innocuous as depressed because they lost their job versus, I’ll grab this major health crisis that we’re talking could be life-threatening and anything in between?

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes, exactly what you said. We do get a lot of relationship calls, which I was surprised. I didn’t think that I would have to be supporting people in their relationships and stuff like that.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Radio Delilah.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah. We don’t give advice though. We do not give advice. We want you to make your own decisions and your own choices. We just present, help you figure out your choices and options, and then let you take it from there.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right. So a victory for you then is giving them the right resources, and whether they take it or not, which you still want them to do, you have succeeded because they called not knowing something and didn’t have a support, and you connect them to that.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes, correct. Right. We also get a lot of people who are depressed, like you said, about losing their jobs and things like that. We do get mental health things, people going through having their symptoms flare up. We just meet them where they are.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: What would you say is the most enjoyable thing that you do as a warm line manager?

ERICA BULLOCK: Actually talking with the callers.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. So you get your hands on.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. I actually answer phones too.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You get to answer phones.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. So talking with the callers, and we do get repeat callers who sometimes, they need to tell the story two and three, ten times. And when they get it, that’s awesome. You know, when they figure out what they need to do to move past that point, that’s an awesome feeling.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right. Because that’s the payoff.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: And sometimes I would imagine that people just need a place where they can just be who they are without fear of rejection, without fear of judgment. And if they’ve got to say the same story over 15 times, and on the 15th time, the light bulb clicks and they’re like, I can let this go now because I’ve been able to express myself about it and more than one person has heard it and agreed with me about my experience. Now I can maybe make the move to letting it go or reframing it to something different, downplaying what it was, but what can I learn from it?

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. And also sometimes we get callers who realize, hey, I am normal. It’s not, you know, I’m not, I’m not mentally challenged or anything like that. You know, and because sometimes I’ve had to tell callers, that’s a normal reaction. You’ve been through so much.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right.

ERICA BULLOCK: And they’re like, what? I’m not losing my mind? No, that’s normal to feel that way. And so and then they will get a light bulb will come on in their minds and they can see the light, you know, how to get out this situation.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah, and that’s affirming someone’s movement toward greater senses of sanity and less sense of crazy. It’s a really big deal.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah. And showing genuine support and then also being willing to share from your experience, strength and hope to folks with the whole caveat of they decide whether they want to do or what you say is a powerful thing.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. Yeah. So one thing that could be changed is that more people would know about the warm lines and utilize warm lines.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay.

ERICA BULLOCK: Because we get a lot of callers and say, hey, my doctor or my employer or my friend told me to call this number. I didn’t know what a warm line was until I called. And I wish I had known long time ago because I needed you.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: And then it’s that recovery principle, you don’t know what you don’t know.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. I wish we had more recognition and more awareness.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Of who you are, what you do.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Well, and I would imagine that the personal testimonies or storytelling carries a lot of weight.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: People who have been in your services.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Now, this is what happened.

ERICA BULLOCK: You know, you know, they’re like, what you’ve been through it to. That gives me hope that I can move forward and I can move on and I can do some of the things I want to do.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right. And it’s all about forward motion.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Even if it’s, you know, if you’ve ever seen the movie, What About Bob? You know, baby steps out the office.

ERICA BULLOCK: Exactly.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Baby steps to the elevator.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: It is. It’s taking, taking however much time you need. As long as the ball is moving forward. How do you measure success with your callers?

ERICA BULLOCK: Like you just said, moving forward. If they, like we’ve had callers again, we’ve had callers that have told the same story to us every single time they call. And then one time it might click to them and they did something different. They tried something different and got different results.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: There’s an old saying of, if you keep doing what you always did, you’ll get what you always got.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. Or them asserting their independence, like realizing that they can do whatever they want. The world is still oyster.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: How do you measure success from when someone calls in? I mean, do you guys have like a, just out of curiosity, like a survey that people can fill out and let you know, like, hey, when I called, I got this and it felt really good, or maybe you could change that, or how do you guys measure success? Because like, if you come into an ER with a broken leg, success is you have a broken leg, here’s the rod and the cast, and here’s the crutches, go home. And you know that success has happened. How is that working? Because we can’t see into the mind.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. So two things, how the conversation is going. The caller could give us feedback during the conversation. But also we asked them a question at the end of our call. We asked them on a scale of one to 10, how supportive have this phone call been for you?

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay.

ERICA BULLOCK: And we rate, and they rank us, and that lets us know how supportive we’ve been, we’ve been to them.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: And do they usually fill that out?

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Do you get a higher response rate?

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes, because we verbally asked them.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. You asked them when they’re on the phone.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So you’re like, hey, can I get your email address and send you a survey and get it back?

ERICA BULLOCK: No.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Because we all know the pool from that would be very, very small.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah. Zero almost. So we do get a lot of tens. We don’t get too many fives. It’s usually anywhere between six and ten.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So you were telling me that you have obviously a ranking system of how supportive the call is. And I think you were saying five is like the best, is that right?

ERICA BULLOCK: Five is like halfway. It didn’t work or it worked, but it didn’t work. Ten is the ten is the best.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay.

ERICA BULLOCK: Zero is you really weren’t supportive.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay.

ERICA BULLOCK: So we get mostly, we get very rarely do we get a five. We usually get six or above. And really closer to nine or tens than anything.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: That’s great. That’s really good. Because you can’t see the other person. You know, you can’t see their face and their facial expressions and whatnot.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Numbers don’t lie.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: That’s going to be pretty satisfying when you print out the monthly report and you’re sitting at 9.5.

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. That is good.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah.

ERICA BULLOCK: I know when I get off a call and this call gives me ten, I’m like, yeah. Yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right. What’s up? It’s Erica. What do you think was going to happen?

ERICA BULLOCK: Right. Peer support.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yes. Yes. How is working the warm line changed your life?

ERICA BULLOCK: It’s given me a lot of flexibility and freedom because I do work from home. Not only do I get a lot of personal things done, I get to play with my dog more. It’s allowed for me to grow. It’s tested my own personal boundaries, like what am I going to put up with and what I’m not going to put up with. Personally, either caller or warm line worker or just in general in life. It allows me to analyze my own, stretch my wings and analyze my own beliefs and everything like that. And it’s kind of taking me out of my shell a little bit.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: That’s great because it helps. As we know, boundaries are so important in life. And if you come from a place of trauma or struggle, oftentimes you don’t know how to do boundaries because nobody’s taught you. Or they taught you in a skewed way, which is healthy. And once you know that you deserve to have boundaries, and you deserve to be able to guard them, that’s really powerful.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. So we do talk about boundaries during the team meetings and things, and we talk about ethics. Those are two key components of peer support, and that we really do kind of hit home. Because you have to maintain the one line boundaries, or else the one line will just fall apart. You know, and there’s all sorts of boundaries. There’s boundaries, call limits. Boundaries as far as what the callers are talking about or doing.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay.

ERICA BULLOCK: Boundaries as far as how many, you know, work ethic type boundaries, like how many times you can call out type deal. So we talk about all of those boundaries.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: And what is there a typical allowed time frame for a call? Like, okay, we only do five minutes or do you give a little grace period or what’s a?

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah. So it’s 20, for a repeat call is 20 minutes, for a new call is 30 minutes, and for a text call is 45.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. And they can call, if I called you on Monday, I could call you on Wednesday?

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. So you can call, initially you call once a day for about a month, but then if we find that you’re calling excessively like every single day in a month, we might put you to three times a week, just depending on how things are going. Okay. Yeah. And then if you like abusing, if you keep kind of abusing your privileges, we might take you down to two, and if you’re just out of control, we might even block you. We have the capability of blocking people, so yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Oh, you do?

ERICA BULLOCK: Yeah.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: They’re not going to come find you. There are a good many people that I’m sure 99% of them are calling just because they want to hear somebody’s voice, and then also they want to find the belief that whatever is beating them down, they can withstand the beat down to get to the healing.

ERICA BULLOCK: But we also encourage our college to be independent, because sometimes suppose you can’t get through and you can’t talk on the warm line, then what are you going to do? Right. That’s another way to encourage the independents on their part as well, and taking control over their recovery story and journey as well. Because there’s plenty of community resources out there too, and we’re just one little link in your chain.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Right. But a vital link, I think, for sure. Because you never know when a rightly timed word in somebody’s life can do.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You may say one little thing to that person that they needed to hear, that they may have heard a thousand times, but the tone of your voice or the sound of your voice or the words you chose, something may ring more true.

ERICA BULLOCK: That’s true.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: In that moment.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: That’s a game changer.

ERICA BULLOCK: That is a game changer.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah. Let me see. I think I nailed all the questions. Do you have anything you want to add?

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. I would encourage the Warm Line is not just for people who are not PRSs. We get PRSs every once in a while too. It’s for anybody. So if you need a resource to either give out to your clients or the people that you serve, or if you need a resource for yourself, call 1-866-400-6428, Monday through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. And I assume that anonymity and confidentiality are high priorities. Yes. So everything that you say, it stays in the phone world. We don’t write down exactly what you say or anything like that. We only take a few bits of information, not to identify you, but just for statistical purposes only. And you don’t even have to give a name.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Okay. So I can make up a name. I’m R2D2.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. You can even make up a name. We wouldn’t know. So I could let you know recovery is possible. Recovery does happen. There’s lots of people out there who have been through some stuff, and they’ve overcome their challenges. And there’s lots of people that would love to assist you on your journey. So I want to encourage everybody to reach out for help as they need it. No one’s perfect. No one has had the perfect life. We’ve all been through some stuff. So I know we on this one, I won’t judge you or anything like that. We won’t tell you business or anything. So if you need someone to talk to, please feel free to call us.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: And with that, ladies and gentlemen, there’s really not much I could say to sell that. Erica, thanks so much for being on the program today.

ERICA BULLOCK: Thank you for having me, Chris.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You are welcome. And we appreciate all that you shared about the Warmline. Again, can I get you to go ahead and give that information if someone wants to call the number and the hours again. Just want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to know that information.

ERICA BULLOCK: Yes. So it’s the MHAV Warmline. And the number is 1-866-400-6428. We’re open Monday through Friday is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. We’re open 365 days a year.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: And if someone is in crisis, they should call 911, is that right?

ERICA BULLOCK: They should call 988. If you are in crisis, please dial 988. That’s for any type of crisis. Please dial 988. If you’re not in crisis and just need a caring, listening ear, call 1-866-400-6428.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Awesome. Thank you.

ERICA BULLOCK: Oh, I just thought of one thing. And if you are someone who is looking to get your 500 hours, please check out the VPRSN Job Board. We will be hiring throughout the year. So just look at the Job Board every once in a while.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Awesome, Erica. Thanks for sharing that. I want to thank our listeners for listening to the Peer Into Recovery Podcast, which is brought to you by the Virginia Peer Specialist Network and Mental Health America of Virginia. And if you like our show and would like to subscribe to the podcast, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. And please leave us a brief review on iTunes. In the meantime, take care of yourselves, everyone. We’ll see you soon.