Calls To Action: How 211 Became An Instant Link To Health And Social Services During The Pandemic
October 21, 2020
New Orleans Public Radio
...through it all, 211 live call specialists connected thousands of residents to health and social services via the system’s vast network of providers. Simultaneously, it collected data and fed information back to those state agencies and nonprofits, scrambling to raise levees against the flood of unmet needs.
When the Louisiana Department of Health’s hotline first became inundated with calls in March, 211 immediately stepped in. To date, 211 has serviced more than 133,000 callers with information on Covid-19, through its partnership with LDH. That’s not including the more than 40,000 who received Covid-19 information via 211’s text keywords. Often, that meant screening callers’ needs, then directly connecting them to health experts at LDH who could answer questions and provide advice about whether to get tested.