Pandemic raises workload for mental health agencies

GROWING ­CONCERN: Crisis phone screeners Alechi Wali, left, and Lydia Villafana take calls at the state-run BH Link call center in East Providence. The center, which fields calls from people experiencing a mental health or behavioral health need, has seen calls related to the COVID-19 pandemic increase in recent weeks. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
GROWING ­CONCERN: Crisis phone screeners Alechi Wali, left, and Lydia Villafana take calls at the state-run BH Link call center in East Providence. The center, which fields calls from people experiencing a mental health or behavioral health need, has seen calls related to the COVID-19 pandemic increase in recent weeks. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

During the first week of March at the BH Link call center in East Providence, about 3.5% of the roughly 40 calls that came in daily were related to the coronavirus crisis. By the second week, nearly 19% of callers were having trouble dealing with some aspect of the public health emergency. Established in late

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