More calls to Lifeline as anxiety over JobKeeper and vaccine surges

Suicide prevention charity Lifeline is receiving more calls for help than ever before due to anxiety over the COVID vaccine and the end of JobKeeper.

Ten years ago Ruben Mackellar came home from Saturday sport to be told by his shocked and grief stricken mother that his father had taken his own life.

Today Mr Mackellar, 25, is one of 4000 volunteers manning phones for crisis support and suicide prevention charity Lifeline.

And through the coronavirus pandemic demand for the service has never been higher.

“My dad’s death hit all of us with a huge amount of surprise,” he said yesterday. “No one saw it coming.”

So when a friend mentioned his own volunteer work answering phones and texts for Lifeline, Mr MacKellar jumped at the chance to step in and make a difference for other people in crisis.

“It was to really give back. I thought my dad just struggled to have people who understood what he was going through,” he said. “We give people the opportunity to have someone who is there to listen.”

Lifeline crisis support volunteer Ruben Mackellar at the charity call centre in the Sydney CBD. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The charity was founded 58 years ago this week and was dealing with an average of 2500 calls across Australia every day. That increased to around 2800 calls a day when the bushfires hit.

Lifeline chairman John Brogden said that figure jumped to around 3000 a day during the height of the pandemic last year. “In the darkest days of last winter we saw our then busiest ever day with 3300 calls,” he said.

Around one third of those calls — a staggering 1000 people — are contemplating taking their own life. Lifeline operators scramble the emergency services between 10 and 20 times a day.

“We thought the new normal going into 2021 was 3000 calls,” Mr Brogden said.

“But in the last three weeks we are averaging 3200 calls a day. Three weeks ago we saw our busiest day ever with 3350 calls. Calls are through the roof.”

Anxiety is high. JobKeeper is coming to an end, people are worried about getting the vaccine and if it will work and sudden border closures are putting people on edge.

“Many people are coming up to 15 months without being able to see their families. There is a high level of anxiety,” Mr Brogden said.

Lifeline Australia Chair and former politician John Brogden. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jenny Evans

Government intervention during the pandemic to introduce JobKeeper and change insolvency laws took pressure off many Australians. Without that the calls to Australia’s leading suicide prevention service would have been far higher.

“I think we need to keep JobKeeper in certain targeted areas such as hospitality,” said Mr Brogden, who welcomed yesterday’s decision to offer wage support to more than 8000 airline staff.

The need for the service is there. Over the last 12 months Lifeline has received more than one million calls and the new text messaging service almost 100,000 conversations. One third of all of those came from people in NSW.

“It is amazing we are getting so many calls but the silver lining is that it means people who need us are ringing us,” Mr Brogden said.

During the pandemic both state and federal governments increased funding to the charity. But if the demand remains at the current level then additional financial support will be required.

“We have never been more needed in 58 years of operation,” Mr Brogden said.

If you, or someone you know, is struggling, please reach out to Lifeline on 13 11 14.

More calls to Lifeline as anxiety over JobKeeper and vaccine surges