Tenerife's Hope Line: 922 334 050

[Janet]

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The Tenerife cabildo's consejera de Acción Social, Cristina Valido, has announced that Tenerife will now join the national voluntary network of Hope Lines (Teléfono de la Esperanza), a telephone service aimed at providing immediate and free advice and support to people in crisis, whether through isolation or personal, family or social difficulties. The new phone line offers telephonic advice and counselling, and where necessary, redirection to specialized services, whether counselling, psychologists, training, etc.

The councillor welcomed the launch of the service in Tenerife, and said that she wanted to stress what it meant to have an base here, not just the provision of phoneline assistance but also a physical presesnce for those residents who need more than just someone to listen, and who need physical help. Sra Valido added that when people are in crisis, no services are sufficient, and the more means that can be offered the better.

Apart from Cristina Valido, the Hope Line's presentation ceremony included three representatives of the organization: Alicia Garcia, Jose Cabrera and Jose Manuel Segado, president, technical director and representative in Tenerife, respectively. All three thanked the Tenerife cabildo for the support it had given to enable this service to be set up here. Indeed, Alicia Garcia said that the organization had covered Tenerife for the last 18 years and that it had become clear that a physical presence here was needed. Both José Cabrera and José Manuel Segado took the opportunity to acknowledge the work of volunteers, adding that in 2013 alone they had dealt with more than 3,700 calls from the Canaries.

Tenerife's Hope Line base will be at 9, Calle Villalba Hervás Santa Cruz and will include a a technical director, a Clinical Psychology specialist, two group coordinators and five technical counsellors.  The free phoneline is already available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for people who need. Ring 922 334 050. HERE is the national organization's website. JA