Parents who are dealing with stress as the school year begins can access free counseling and other mental health services through a 24-hour hotline.

Licensed social workers, psychologists, and counselors will offer guidance on handling family stressors and, if necessary, link parents to school-based clinicians or early-childhood specialists, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration announced Wednesday. Clinicians will also provide grief and trauma counseling for those who have lost loved ones, with parents eligible to undergo three follow-up sessions.

The D.C. Department of Behavioral Health is coordinating these services, which are confidential and feature bilingual clinicians. It established the line earlier in the crisis to help struggling residents, and is focusing now on reaching parents who may be in need.

Clinicians assigned to the program have experience with parents of children ranging in age from early childhood through high school, and residents can access the services by calling 1-888-793-4357.

“This effort is focused on promoting mental wellness for the whole family as they deal with the day-to-day stressors that we are all feeling related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Barbara Bazron, the head of the department, said at a press conference. She noted that parents are juggling various responsibilities during the pandemic, including work, managing their children’s distance learning, and “being sequestered for many months with their families” in addition to the normal challenges of parenting.

On Sept. 2, the District also will kick off its first “Wellness Wednesday,” a new program that will offer interactive parent support groups online each week. Licensed professionals will oversee the sessions, which will run from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The first session’s topic will be self-care for parents, Bazron said.

In other health matters discussed Wednesday, D.C. Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt said childhood vaccination rates have seen an “unprecedented” decrease this year because of the pandemic’s effect on the city’s healthcare system. Nesbitt encouraged families to have their children vaccinated for all required immunizations, such as those for measles, mumps, and rubella, even though D.C. Public Schools and many local charter schools will begin the fall remotely. This will help schools transition smoothly to in-person learning when COVID-19 infections drop to a more manageable level, she said.

Families can schedule healthcare appointments, including for immunizations, at school-based health centers near where they live. As of May, measles vaccination rates were a few to several percentage points below the recommended 95% across public and private schools in the District, Nesbitt told principals at the time in a letter obtained by the Washington Post.