SAN ANTONIO – Jana Castellano sat at her desk, speaking calmly and compassionately on the phone.
“So, what is it that you’re about to do? That’s a really tough situation for a lot of people,” she said to the person on the other line.
Castellano was speaking to someone who called the NAMI Mental Health Warm Line, a program available to anyone who is struggling with mental health and needs someone to talk to. NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Health based in San Antonio.
The fairly new warm line program is in response to statistics in Bexar County, such as the fact that 1 in 4 people live with a mental illness, which amounts to over 500,000 people.
The warm line is different than a hotline. Mental health hotlines are typically for individuals experiencing a crisis.
“A hotline like 988 is more for someone who feels like hurting themselves, hurting someone else, or is maybe experiencing some mental health-related violence,” Castellano explained. “You do not have to be in crisis to call us. We are a pre-crisis line before they reach that boiling point.”
While anyone can call 988 for any level of mental health help, many people have proven to like the warm line when they just need resources or to vent.
“When they’re feeling maybe that isolation, that anxiety, that stress, that worry. Maybe they’re going through a tough time; maybe they need some resources,” she said.
Castellano went through training and certification to become one of NAMI’s 10 Certified Peer Support Specialists for their warm line. One of the requirements for becoming a peer support specialist is that the person must have lived experience with mental health issues.
“That’s a must for this job. It’s so important that we’re able to relate to them and able to understand how significant this moment is in their life,” she said.
Castellano can relate to a long list of experiences.
“I’ve experienced mental health crises, I have experienced hospitalizations, I experienced homelessness, I experienced suicide attempts,” Castellano said openly.
Now she’s on the other side, saying it’s healing when she gets to offer her experiences as a means of recovery for others.
The number of people Castellano talks to in a day is not small.
“Sometimes 30, 40, 50 in a day. It depends on the day,” she said.
NAMI operates a new call center that takes calls from around the country from many different people touched by mental illness.
“Sometimes people are calling for their children or a friend, and they want to find out about the classes that we offer, the support groups or the trainings, the free resources,” Castellano said.
That format has propelled the warm line to extreme success. It only launched back in October, funded by Bexar County through 2026.
In the eight months since it opened, they’ve taken 2,371 calls, exceeding projections by 137%.
Specialists have connected callers to a range of resources, including mental health services, affordable housing, food assistance, domestic violence shelters and more.
They want the public to know that anyone who calls will truly be heard without judgment.
“I’m listening, I am here for you, I want to help,” Castellano said.
The NAMI Warm Line operates daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and can be reached by calling 210-939-9999 or visiting their website for web chat.
