Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) is offering a place to turn for COVID long-haulers, or people who are suffering from long-term effects from COVID-19.
People can call the network's hotline at (860) 647-6434 Monday-Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
“We felt the need to put it out there because it’s become clear that there are some people that after the acute phase of the COVID illness have lingering symptoms and problems from mild to severe and that they don’t fit easily into a box because they can be related to mental health or physical health,” said Ann Turkington, the Assistant Vice President for Behavior Health for ECHN.
Some of those long-term symptoms could include fatigue, cough, shortness of breath, confusion, memory loss, anxiety, depression or PTSD.
The goal of the operator is to listen to the person’s concerns and connect them with resources to help.
“I think it’s important for us to validate what people are going through and provide hope, but not to skip that step of validating the real struggles people have getting back to normal for them or a new normal,” said Turkington.
