AMES, Iowa — Sometimes life gives you a lot to handle, but you don’t have to handle everything on your own. Iowa Concern is a free service connecting Iowans with information to help them navigate through a variety of life circumstances.
With a toll-free phone number, live chat capabilities and a website, Iowa Concern services are available 24 hours a day, seven days per week at no charge. Iowa Concern provides access to stress counselors and an attorney for legal education, as well as information and referral services for a wide variety of topics. The service is provided through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
To reach Iowa Concern, call 800-447-1985; language interpretation services are available. Or, visit the website, https://www.extension.iastate.edu/iowaconcern/, to live chat with a stress counselor one-on-one in a secure environment. Or email an expert regarding legal, finance, stress, or crisis and disaster issues.
“All personal information given to Iowa Concern, whether on the hotline or through e-mail or live chat, is kept confidential,” said hotline coordinator Tammy Jacobs.
Jacobs is coordinator for Iowa Concern and all Human Sciences Extension and Outreach hotlines at Iowa State. These hotlines answered more than 30,000 calls last year, Jacobs said. Along with Iowa Concern, callers were contacting Healthy Families, TeenLine, 2-1-1 and AnswerLine, the extension hotline for home and family questions.
She also suggests visiting Human Sciences Extension and Outreach’s “Finding Answers Now” website for additional information and resources on dealing with stress.
Jacobs can be reached directly at trjacobs@iastate.edu or 515-727-0656.
— Tammy Jacobs and Laura Sternweis, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
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