There's a newly updated resource in Montgomery County for people searching for mental health treatment.
The Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services of Montgomery County has released an updated version of its LocalHelpNow app.
LocalHelpNow has been in use for five years, connecting people to mental health treatment as well as food, legal services, and employment support.
With fresh updates, the web app can now be saved to a device home screen for easy access. This change also allows ADAMHS to make important updates to the app daily.
“So it will work exactly like a mobile app works. The benefits of that is we have the ability here at the ADAMHS board to update that app 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We can add additional providers. We can update contact information without having to go through the Google Play Store or the iOS store," said Tina Rezash Rogal, the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Communication for the agency.
Rezash Rogal said the web app was created to provide easy access to any and all resources in the community.
“If an individual is seeking mental health support, typically there might be some other ways in which that individual needs to be supported, too. Maybe they need help with food resources or stable housing or employment opportunities," she said. "And we wanted to make all of these things available again on the LocalHelpNow web app.”
Before updates, the program averaged 4,000 to 5,000 interactions a month.
The foundation of the app was a collaborative effort with Ascend Innovations. The organizations used input from treatment and prevention providers across Montgomery County to create the browser.
App users can search for services based on what type of help they need or by zip code to find the most accessible options.
The countywide Human Services Levy and state grant money paid for these updates, keeping access to mental health and addiction services right at the community's fingertips.
"To utilize LocalHelpNow, it's very simple. Just go to mc.LocalHelpNow.org and we hope that you will use this today to check it out today, but then access it regularly to see the new services that we have to offer," Rezash Rogal said.
