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Mental health ‘warmlines’: How people are helping each other
Peer-to-peer organizations modeled on sharing lived experiences offer phone support and more.
Rebecca Grapevine
February 26, 2026 • Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Hi, Atlanta!
A few weeks ago, we published a story about mental health hotlines — including the 988 line — for Georgians in mental health crisis. Since then, I’ve learned about how statewide “warmlines” rely on Georgians who have faced their own mental health and substance use challenges to provide empathy and support to others.
“Mental health is public health,” James Todd told me recently.
Todd is the head of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, a 35-year-old, statewide nonprofit. His organization uses the “peer recovery” model for mental health and substance use in which trained peers — people with lived experience of mental health challenges — help others.
The network runs several programs, including what it calls warmlines. Those are phone lines for people who need mental health support but are not in full-blown crisis. The phones are staffed 24 hours a day by trained peers who can provide reassurance, support, empathy, and social connection.
If someone needs a higher level of care or is in crisis, the workers transfer the person to 988 or the Georgia Crisis and Access Line. Those connect people to care and can even dispatch mobile crisis units to help if needed.
The network provides many other services, such as five respite centers across the state, including in Decatur and Cartersville. These facilities are staffed 24-7 and provide a space for the organization’s daily activities that range from aromatherapy to financial planning to career support.
Each building has three or four rooms that allow adults who need mental health support to stay for up to a week at a time for free. This innovative program provides an “in-between” level of support for people who need help but don’t necessarily need to be admitted to a psychiatric facility.
A sister organization, the Georgia Council for Recovery, provides similar services for those struggling with substance use. Peers staff its warmline and can provide confidential support and connection.
The Georgia Council for Recovery also sponsors a range of other activities, like peer support for people who end up in emergency rooms and for parents whose babies end up in neonatal intensive care due to substance use.
Both organizations administer training programs for people who want to become certified peer specialists. They regularly hold training. The deadline to apply for the next round is Friday. Find the details for the network here and the council here.
Georgia mental health/substance use support lines
24/7 Crisis hotlines: 988 and the Georgia Crisis and Access Line (1-800-715-4225); you can or text or connect via online chat
24/7 Mental health Peer2Peer warmline: 1-888-945-1414 (if no answer, leave message and a trained specialist will call back shortly)
CARES warmline for substance use: 1-844-326-5400; staffed 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily
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The Grapevine 🍇
This week, our team had a mini-book club meeting. Here are some of the public health books we’re talking about:
📗Dr. Bill Foege, the public health warrior who helped eradicate smallpox, once told me that his hero was Albert Schweitzer. Foege wrote a foreword to Schweitzer’s book “The Primeval Forest,” and I’m eager to read it.
📘Healthbeat Editor in Chief Charlene Pacenti is reading “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” by Tracy Kidder. It’s the story of Dr. Paul Farmer and his global health work, particularly in Haiti. She also recommends “Everything is Tuberculosis” by John Green.
📗New York reporter Trenton Daniel is reading “The Undying,” by Anne Boyer.
📙National reporter Alison Young is a published author. We’re all reading her 2023 book, “Pandora’s Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk.”
What are your favorite public health books? Reply to this email to share!
🌴Please note: I’ll be away next week. When I come back, I’ll get into which public health bills made it across the legislative “Crossover Day” deadline.
What I’m hearing from readers:
Your newsletter is always so informative and I'm very glad that Rebecca is now on mainstream TV media, which helps to spread the word about public health even more.
Hear from Healthbeat on other platforms:
Fox 5: I discuss a bill to make ivermectin available over the counter in Georgia. Watch here.
Upcoming Events
Friday: Science for Georgia hosts Jazz Hands! Science Comedy at Wild Heaven West End; doors open at 7 p.m. Get tickets here.
March 5: The Southern Alliance for Public Health will hold a training on using data for impactful storytelling at noon. More details and registration here.
March 7-21: The Atlanta Science Festival hosts more than 100 events across the city. Check out the offerings here.
What Do You Know?
Test your knowledge of public health topics. Today’s question:
Georgia is the state with the highest rate of new HIV cases. How many new cases were diagnosed in 2023, the latest year of data? |
Tell Me More
What questions do you have about public health in Atlanta? You can reach me at [email protected], post a comment, or reply to this email.
In health,
Rebecca
Thumbnail image by Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images
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