Tennessee Congressman Posts Cell Phone Number To Talk To People Experiencing Anxiety And Depression

April 5, 2020

Last week, Congressman Tim Burchett offered up his cell phone number to people who might be feeling overwhelmed during the Coronavirus pandemic.

"If you're feeling overwhelmed or scared and just want to talk to somebody give me a call," Burchett tweeted.

In the last few days, he's received over 1,000 phone calls and 2,000 text messages, mostly from people in the seven counties in his district.

Some calls came as late as 1 a.m. Several calls came from other states, even as far out as California and Alaska.

"People are just scared and I think they just want to hear a comforting voice on the other end of the line," Burchett said on Friday. "Granted the vast majority of them are from our district the seven counties that I represent in East Tennessee and they are just wonderful people a lot of them are just checking in on me. They want me to check on a friend for them or if they are feeling down and they don't know what to do they have a situation in their own home and people are worried about their kids."

Burchett said that he tries to be positive on the phone since he knows some people are suicidal and he refers them to people who can help.

"If they have a friend who is suicidal and they can't reach them all over the country, I'll figure out through the computer here and we find where they are," Burchett said. "My staff does a great job they care for these people, they hurt for these people and they know that I hurt for them so that makes them work that much harder. We're just trying to get to everybody."