SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Front-line workers have been there for us since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Unsurprisingly, caring for sick and dying people takes an emotional toll, and some first responders and health care workers are feeling burnt out more than nine months later.
To help cope, the New Jersey Department of Human Services launched an emotional support hotline for workers.
“Our goal is to help create a safe space for health care workers and first responders to talk about it — talk about their anxieties and the trauma and the challenges that they have faced taking care of all of us while worrying about their own families,” explained Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson.
The hotlines are staffed by other health care workers and first responders — people who have been through it and know what callers are talking about.
“They have seen unbelievable heartbreak,” Johnson said. “They have been there on the front lines, not just taking care of people but being there to help be the voice for families who couldn’t be in hospital rooms at the peak of the pandemic.
“Part of what we’re doing here is hoping that individuals will reach out, because it’s people like them who are answering these calls.”
Although the vaccines are incredible developments, it will still be some time before we come close to resembling normalcy again. Front-line workers will continue to balance crowded hospital rooms and a lack of staff on top of their own family challenges at home.
Johnson encourages anyone who needs help to make the call.
Hospital and health care workers can call 1-833-416-8773, and first responders can call 1-833-237-4325.