Lifeline WA seeking urgently-needed boost to crisis call centre

LIFELINE WA is aiming to raise $160,000 to fund an urgently-needed expansion of its Northbridge call centre.

The organisation currently has 178 telephone crisis support volunteers, and has set a target of 288 in the next 18 months to enable the centre to answer more of the tens of thousands of calls it receives.

The Lights for Lifeline campaign comes amidst new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showing 409 people took their own lives in WA in 2017.

Lifeline WA chief executive Lorna MacGregor said it cost $4,000 to train one telephone crisis support volunteer, with e-learning, workshops, role-playing, supervised shifts and assessments.

“Our crisis support volunteers have to undergo more than 170 hours of training before they can become accredited,” she said.

“We want to be able to answer even more calls and help more people, and the only way to do that is to have more volunteers to answer the phones.”

The Lights for Lifeline campaign will include the Lifelife WA Christmas tree, which will be put up in Yagan Square in November.

You can donate to the campaign at lifelinewa.org.au/donations.

For 24/7 crisis support, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifelinewa.org.au.

Young people seeking support can also contact Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or visit kidshelpline.com.au.