Lifeline is seeing an unprecedented increase in demand

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Lifeline is experiencing unprecedented demand for its services with the helpline's three busiest days all coming in the past 12 months. The average daily call volume is now 3,000, which is an average of 500 more calls a day compared to 2019.

Transcript

00:00 Across our chat, text and voice services, what we're observing is that we are experiencing

00:10 an unprecedented level of demand. And in terms of the reasons that people are reaching out

00:15 for support, financial distress is a significant issue. Employment also is something that's

00:23 featuring in those calls, people requesting support for both concerns about employment,

00:28 but financial distress in particular is one of the issues that is being raised very frequently.

00:34 And how do current daily call numbers, Anna, compare to other times of crisis in the past

00:38 like COVID and the global financial crisis?

00:43 Yes, so during COVID, we reached new peak volumes of people reaching out for support.

00:52 But what we're seeing now is that we're actually back to those peaks. And indeed, on Sundays,

00:58 we're actually exceeding the number of people who were reaching out during COVID who are

01:04 looking for support currently, Ros. So across the call, chat and text services, we're taking

01:13 around 4,000 contacts a day. So that really is an unprecedented level of demand.

01:19 Do you have enough people to cope?

01:24 So Lifeline, like other charities, are experiencing some challenges around recruiting and retaining

01:32 volunteers. We're a largely volunteer-based service. And at the moment, with people facing

01:38 financial distress, going back to work and family responsibilities, all of those factors

01:45 are really playing into those challenges around a volunteer-based workforce, Ros. So whilst

01:51 we do ensure that our call, chat and text services have the capacity to respond to everyone

01:59 that's reaching out for support, in terms of the medium to longer term, we're engaging

02:04 in a lot of planning activities to make sure that we can maintain those levels of support.

02:09 So Anna, when people reach out for help to Lifeline, what can they expect? What help

02:14 can you give them?

02:17 So Ros, when people reach out and they can do so 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Lifeline's

02:23 always there, what they can expect is that they'll speak to a highly trained crisis supporter

02:30 and that person will listen to them without judgment, hear what it is that they have to

02:35 say, make sure that they're safe and where it's appropriate, work with them in a way

02:41 that's led by the caller or the chatter or the texter to identify next steps. Sometimes

02:48 where it's appropriate, the crisis supporter might provide a referral to an additional

02:54 service, but I guess the experience broadly for people is to have someone listen to them

03:02 without judgment to what it is that's really on their minds.

03:06 And how long do those calls usually last for, Anna?

03:11 It does vary, but typically around 20 minutes would be the time that someone's engaged with

03:18 a crisis supporter.

03:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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