Will Lifeline be there in a time of need?

What is it about?

Lifeline Australia's 13 11 14 telephone counselling service is said to be a crisis-line. However, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that it is a generalist telephone counselling service, taking calls from on a wide variety of issues. Indeed, only a small proportion of calls to the line are likely to overtly be about suicide and even fewer will have a suicide plan (an important indicator of suicide risk). However, the line is perceived to be a national suicide line and a great variety of sources (media, researchers, journalist, health care professionals, websites, etc.) regularly direct those in distress to this line.

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Photo by James Sutton on Unsplash

Photo by James Sutton on Unsplash

Why is it important?

With suicidal callers making up such a small fraction of the huge number of calls to this line, a suicidal caller may have to wait or even have their call go answered, while other less urgent calls are being answered. A caller in crisis perception of time slows down and even a short wait may seem like an eternity. If we want to arrest the suicide rate we need suicide interventions that can respond rapidly. Asking such people to call the emergency phone number, as the Lifeline message does, ignores the crucial role that Lifeline counsellors play in talking suicidal callers out of their planned action. Lifeline counsellors can work diligently, over a considerable time, perhaps an hour or more, to talk the suicidal person ‘down’ and guide her or him to reassess their circumstances and abandon the suicide plan for an alternative course of action. This is not something that an emergency services line is designed to do.

Perspectives