Victorians are inundating the national suicide hotline. But we’re not picking up the phone

Victoria is a multimillion-dollar drain on Lifeline Australia’s resources, according to a new analysis, prompting calls for the cash-strapped Allan government to remedy the shortfall if it is serious about transforming the mental health system.

While the state hands Lifeline about $1.54 million each year, progressive think tank The McKell Institute has calculated it costs the organisation more than double that figure to meet the call-taking targets tied to its state funding.

Former police officer Luke Baker says Lifeline saved his life. As the father of five children, he wants to see an expansion of crisis text and web-based chat services.Credit: Aresna Vilanueva

Victoria’s funding shortfall blows out to more than $7 million when the tens of thousands of calls from within the state but answered by interstate call centres are considered at an average cost of $39 a call.

Last year, Lifeline centres in other states answered more than 150,000 calls from Victoria. This is because calls are routed to the next available crisis support worker.

Almost a third of the 1 million phone calls to the national suicide prevention service are from Victoria. But just 12 per cent of all calls were answered by Victorian Lifeline centres during the 2022-23 financial year.

Unlike the NSW centres, those in Victoria don’t have the resources to respond to texting services, popular among young people, people with disabilities, and victim-survivors of domestic violence.

NSW gives $12 million to Lifeline annually, half of which is set aside for text-based chats.

There are about the same number of calls coming from each state.

Lifeline says almost half of those who use their text and chat-based services say they would not have reached out using any other method.

Former police officer Luke Baker, from Echuca in Victoria’s north, credits Lifeline with saving his life, and wants Victorian centres to respond to texting and web-based chats.

“I’m a father of five young children, and I know they prefer to text me,” Baker said.

“It’s just the way the youth converse nowadays. They’ve always got a phone in their hand. If it saves a life, then it needs to come into effect, 1000 per cent.”

Five of the eight Lifeline centres in Victoria have service agreements with the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing worth $150,000 a year to take 10,440 annual calls. A sixth, Lifeline Melbourne, receives $790,000 per year and is tasked with answering 55,284 calls.

The two newest Lifeline centres in Victoria – Lifeline Western Melbourne and Lifeline Narrm – do not receive any state government funding under these contracts.

Lifeline Australia chief executive Colin Seery.Credit: James Brickwood

The McKell Institute’s report, seen by The Age, calls on the Allan government to better fund Lifeline’s crisis services.

“An annual grant from the Victorian state government would allow Lifeline centres in Victoria to increase call-taking capacity, offer text-based crisis support, train more volunteers, and offer broader community services, similar to NSW,” the report states.

Lifeline Australia chief executive Colin Seery said the demand for crisis services in Victoria was significant.

“The team do an amazing job,” Seery said. “But there is definitely a gap. We’re really keen to continue discussions with the government on that.”

McKell Institute director Rebecca Thistleton said it was just common sense for all state governments to fund crisis text and online chat-based services.

“Text-based chat is how young people prefer to communicate, and it’s much easier for people with a disability to use,” Thistleton said, adding that it should be seen as an investment.

“The longer-term costs of not providing early intervention and mental health crisis services is costing the government and broader community far, far more.”

Mental health advocate Dr Stephen Carbone, a former GP, said it was important for every state to contribute its fair share in Lifeline funding.

“It’s absolutely disappointing that Victoria’s contribution is less than other states,” Carbone said.

“Lifeline is one of those critical essential services in the Australian mental-health landscape. A lot of people turn to Lifeline.”

The McKell Institute report comes after The Age revealed last week that the Victorian government had backtracked on its promise to implement recommendations from the mental health royal commission on time.

A key pledge to set up an agency led by people with lived experience of mental illness was due by the end of this year, but the government’s “Phase 2 Reform Plan” provides a new deadline of 2025-26.

Mental health consultant and advocate Simon Katterl said the government had lost ambition at the expense of Victorians’ wellbeing.

“The large-scale change we were promised isn’t being delivered,” he said. “That’s partly because the government’s not investing the money it should.”

Opposition mental health spokeswoman Emma Kealy said the government’s priorities were in the wrong place, spending billions on Big Build projects while mental health services could not keep up with demand.

“It’s a disgraceful indictment on Premier Jacinta Allan that Victoria’s mental health system is in collapse, promised reforms have been scrapped, and even a trusted service like Lifeline is starved of funding,” she said.

“Labor rakes in $1 billion a year through the mental health tax, yet the value of a life saved by Lifeline is being ignored by Labor.”

An Allan government spokeswoman said no other Australian jurisdiction was doing as much to reform its mental health system.

“We have invested a record $6 billion since 2021 to deliver recommendations from the royal commission’s 10-year reform plan,” the spokeswoman said.

“Whether it’s walk-in services, community-based care, support in our schools or acute hospital treatment, we’re making seeking treatment more accessible.

“We value the important work of Lifeline in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the Victorian community. This service is largely funded by the Commonwealth government.”

Victoria’s 2025 budget is due to be delivered in May. Labor MPs have already been told to limit their funding requests, in a sign of another tough budget.

Victoria’s net debt is expected to peak at $187.8 billion by mid-2028.

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