Originally published in the North Fulton Herald.
Georgia Relay, the free public service that enables people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have difficulty speaking to place and receive telephone calls, welcomes the Georgia Poison Center as the newest Georgia Relay Partner. Staff at the Center completed their Georgia Relay Partner training earlier this year, and are now equipped to place and receive calls from Georgia Relay users.
Based in Atlanta, the Georgia Poison Center operates a 24-hour poison emergency treatment information hotline, offering free and timely advice and diagnoses to parents, childcare providers, and medical professionals in the case of a poisoning or expected poisoning.
The Georgia Relay Partner program seeks to improve communication between local businesses and residents who use Georgia Relay to place telephone calls. Georgia Relay Partners receive free training and materials to learn to answer and place Relay calls with confidence, making it easier to serve customers who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or who have difficulty speaking. Georgia Relay Partners also receive marketing materials to let Georgia Relay users know the company is Relay friendly.
“Making a Relay call to abusiness or a hotline can be a very frustrating experience when the customer service representative doesn’t understand how Relay works and hangs up the phone,” said Brendan Underwood, Georgia Relay outreach coordinator. “The goal of the Georgia Relay Partner program is to eliminate this confusion and help Relay users connect with these businesses. Now, the Georgia Poison Center is better prepared to assist Relay users in these stressful and dire health situations.”
“Being a Georgia Relay Partner is very important to us,” said Phillip Moore, senior technical analyst at the Georgia Poison Center. “We are here to help people in what can be emergency situations, so being able to connect to Relay users allows us to help that many more people.”
To date, more than 200 local companies have become Georgia Relay Partners. To view a current list, or to request Georgia Relay Partner training for your business, please visit https://georgiarelay.org/relay-partner-program/.
