Choose Healthier Coach Hotline- Making Healthy the Norm

What does it look like to generate a culture shift in the way we view healthcare? To reach someone before their point of crisis, and get an upper hand on preventable chronic disease issues entangling our community? More importantly, how do we bring “unlikely players” into the fold of health promotion, and empower individuals to be change agents in their homes, neighborhoods, faith communities, schools, and businesses?

In an effort to address these questions and craft community-wide solutions, IT’S TIME TEXAS, the United Way for Greater Austin and The University of Texas School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus teamed up to deliver the Choose Healthier Coach Hotline. Birthed out of a mission to make healthy the norm, the Choose Healthier Coach Hotline will serve as a key information resource, referral system, and “coach” to support individuals’ and families’ engagement in physical activity, healthy eating, and general wellness.

When a community member calls the line, a trained health coach will connect the caller to information and resources on healthy eating programs, farmers’ markets, locations for parks or fitness programs, healthy cooking classes, treatment for obesity or smoking cessation, diabetes management classes, and so much more. Through a motivational interviewing approach, the coach will help individuals and families to develop healthy lifestyle goals and plans of action to support their engagement in healthy behaviors.

Housed in the Navigation Center of the United Way for Greater Austin, the Choose Healthier Coach Hotline is uniquely positioned to address needs holistically—linking callers with additional presenting needs to community resources through its built-in connection with 2-1-1 Texas.

The essence of the Choose Healthier Coach Hotline is a resource which challenges the status quo, rejecting the notion that change is impossible while empathetically understanding that change is hard. By incorporating a motivational interviewing model, it gently invites callers to envision new possibilities concerning their health and respects their autonomy in authoring change.

If you or someone you know is curious about beginning your own health journey or have questions about healthy resources in your community, give us a ring. You can call 1-844-26COACH on any weekday between 9AM and 6PM CST, to talk with our trained health coach. Drop us a line, we can’t wait to hear from you!

For more information on IT'S TIME TEXAS and the Choose Healthier Coach Hotline, click here.

Written by 
Suzanne Heritage
ITT Choose Healthier Coach, United Way for Greater Austin


[image source: flickr/arybrami]