When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Vermont, it was only a few weeks before the state cancelled public schools for the remainder of the academic year.
That left thousands of parents across the state in crisis, with the stress of managing full-time child care and unexpected homeschooling now loaded on top of the stress of the pandemic. Plus, a huge percentage of those parents were also struggling with layoffs, and trying to find a way to support their families without the income that they’re used to.
Noreen Shaprio-Berry, the school department director at Northeast Kingdom Human Services, thought there might be a way to help those parents — at least a little bit.
So a few weeks ago, Shaprio-Berry started a parent support hotline.
The line is open to any and every Vermont parent who might need the extra help. Trained professionals on the other end of the phone are available 24/7 to talk parents through any crisis they might be having — big or small.
Actually, Shapiro-Berry prefers the term “warm line” — because she says the line isn’t just for people having emergencies, but for anyone who could benefit from having someone to talk to.
“People are now responsible for helping their children access an education that maybe didn’t do well in school themselves, and don’t have access to technology, and probably have no idea what they’re doing,” Shapiro-Berry said. “We thought, a little extra support might be helpful with all that.”
She said it was important to them to create something that was easy to access. Something that wouldn’t involve opening a case, or scheduling an appointment, or billing insurance. Instead, they wanted to have a resource that was simply there for people, no strings attached.
The first few weeks the line was open, it was only offered Monday – Friday, 8:30-5. But Shapiro-Berry quickly realized that those hours weren’t going to work. She said if it was herself needing to call in, she wouldn’t have any time during the work day at all, and sometimes not even until after her kids went to bed.
So they adjusted their staffing, and opened up the line 24/7, to try and meet more people where they’re at.
She said in the first month or so of the line, they’ve gotten calls from parents needing help, parents calling in to offer advice, and other agencies referring people who they thought might be best served by the hotline.
And it actually inspired them to start a few more lines. A few weeks ago, Northeast Kingdom Human Services launched a recovery hotline, and is currently in the process of launching an emotional support hotline, much like the one for parents, but now for any adult, whether or not they have kids.
Gary Mitchell, head of the recovery hotline, said just like for parents, the pandemic has hit people in recovery especially hard.
It’s taken away some of the most important tools for people recovering from addiction, he said, and left them with far too much isolation and idle time.
“People out there are doing a really good job, and then everything they’re leaning on, all their coping skills that get them through the day are gone,” he said. “Oh and by the way, you just got laid off too, and now you can’t see your kids on the same schedule you used to.”
Mitchell said seeing the success of the parent support line made the need for a recovery support line evident to him. He said there are many very formal channels for people in recovery, but many people need something a lot less structured, something where they won’t get labeled as an addict, and instead can just find someone to talk to.
“This whole pandemic is basically a traumatic event all for all of us,” Shapiro-Berry said. “And we all respond to trauma in different ways.”
She said most of their calls so far have been from people overwhelmed by homeschooling, which she said can bring up some flight or fight coping mechanisms (parents becoming aggressive and belligerent with their children, or parents who withdraw and become avoidant, sometimes ignoring the load of homeschooling entirely). She said they’ve become practiced in giving people strategies to help deal with these struggles, but when summer hits, she said they’re going to have to readjust their service, to help parents now struggling with what is likely going to be a whole new set of issues.
“As the weather gets warmer, and kids want to play outside, parents are going to have to decide how much their child needs to socialize, and how much they’re worried about them catching Covid-19,” Shaprio-Berry said. “But these are things we’re all going to have to decide, because we have to figure out what life is like now.”
The support line can be reached 802-749-1111
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