TriWest Awarded Contract to Provide DSTRESS Line to Marine Corps

PHOENIX, March 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TriWest Healthcare Alliance has been awarded a contract by the United States Marine Corps, Marine and Family Programs Division at Quantico, Virginia, to provide a DSTRESS Line offering "peer-to-peer" counseling services to the entire Marine Corps.

The DSTRESS Line is a 24/7/365 contact center, providing anonymous* phone, chat and online access for non-medical, short-term, solution focused counseling for circumstances amenable to brief intervention, including stress and anger management, grief and loss, the deployment cycle, parent-child relationships, couples communication, marital issues, relationships and relocation. 

The DSTRESS Line is accessible at DSTRESSLine.com and 1-877-476-7734. The "by Marines/for Marines" concept for the DSTRESS Line is to connect Marines, Sailors attached to Marine Units and family members to a veteran Marine, Navy corpsman or other licensed counselor specifically trained in Marine Corps culture.

"We feel tremendously privileged to have been awarded this contract.  Our company has diligently been working alongside our military partners to develop innovative approaches to increase access to behavioral health care, to help build resilience and support their mission," said David J. McIntyre, Jr., President and CEO of TriWest Healthcare Alliance. 

"The DSTRESS Line puts support within reach of Marines before their situation becomes a crisis, helping them and their loved ones cope with the challenges of combat, deployment and the rigors of life as a Marine family."

Since 1996, TriWest Healthcare Alliance has administered the Department of Defense's TRICARE program, serving 2.9 million beneficiaries in the 21-state TRICARE West Region.

To address the growing challenges facing Service members and their families, the company launched a 24/7/365 behavioral health contact center and crisis line certified by the American Association of Suicidology. The contact center currently takes over 20,000 calls and chats per month, 3,200 of them being handled by crisis clinicians. 

The DSTRESS Line will provide global Corps-wide support beginning March 23, 2012.

* Anonymous counseling will be provided unless there is a legal 'duty to warn' authorities of risk or danger to self or others, as required by applicable Federal, State, host-nation law (if outside of the United States), DoD or Military Service regulations.

About TriWest
TriWest Healthcare Alliance partners with the Department of Defense to do "Whatever It Takes" to support the healthcare needs of 2.9 million members of America's military family. A Phoenix-based corporation, TriWest provides access to cost-effective, high-quality health care in the 21-state TRICARE West Region. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or visit www.triwest.com for more information.

SOURCE TriWest Healthcare Alliance