"There's a lot of kids calling": Why the sudden surge in Lifeline calls
Being a Lifeline volunteer has got to be one of the toughest gigs out there, it’s a heartbreaking, confronting job at the best of times.
Volunteers are expected to listen to people’s cries for help while remaining understanding and sympathetic, making sure not to overstep personal boundaries, it’s a role that can be very rewarding but can also take quite an emotional toll.
These people are watching the nation’s mental health epidemic unravel before them, giving their best effort to comfort people at the worst of times. Being physically unable to prevent deaths is an unimaginable challenge that 55-year-old volunteer Text Crisis Supporter Sonny Tuapola is all too familiar with.
Through time, Sonny has learnt to compartmentalise, although emotions can’t always be blocked, and when it comes to the escalating emergency among Australia’s children, he said it is undoubtedly “the hardest part”.
At around 9 am each day, once parents are off to work and kids are left alone, either at school or anywhere else in between, traffic to the text line surges.
"They're texting from their bedrooms, homes, bathrooms, the back of the buildings, everywhere," Tuapola told 9News.com.au.
"I do the 6 am to 10 am shift, and you know, you get adults texting in on the way to work, pulling over their cars on the side of the road.
"But towards 9 o'clock, something else happens, you get all the school kids.
"And there's a lot - a lot of kids calling.
"That's the hardest part.”
Sonny explained that there’s no specific age group that seeks help more than others, and heartbreakingly, he receives calls from children as young as five.
"It's different ages and all different demographics and that sort of stuff," he said.
"And, you know, we do have a kids helpline, especially tailored for kids from five to 15.
"But I regularly speak to children aged 14, 15 and 16.”
Sonny admitted that every single shift he works, there’s always a text or call from a child, which he describes as a “tough” experience that has left a profound, lasting impact on him.
"I'm not going to lie...the first three months I found things were sitting with me after I was speaking to some of the help seekers calling through," he said.
"But I've gradually learned to be more resilient and I've learned to be strong, but it is tough.
"I need to be in the right frame of mind so I can go back and support my family, otherwise, I couldn't do what I do voluntarily.
"I try to help as much as I can, I'll be there with them and I'll stick with them but at the end of the day, it's obviously up to them what they do and we can only try to arm them with knowledge.”
Sonny has been working with Lifeline since July 2021, and explained his role is all about forming a connection with the person on the other line, not providing advice or revealing personal details, although sometimes he may want to.
He explained that there’s no discrimination when it comes to mental health, it’s not exclusive to any demographic, and with the COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis, it has heightened certain issues, and the problem is “right across the spectrum”.
"Self-isolation, working from home, people not having balconies and being confined - that's been a big topic," he said.
"The Northern Rivers floods that happened a few months ago up in Lismore has been another big one," he said.
"The Ukraine war.”
Most recently, the cost of living crisis has been a major impact on callers’ lives.
"I've got people that are about to get thrown out of their homes," Sonny said.
"They can't pay the rent, they don't know what to do.”
Financial pressures are weighing heavily on Australians, and January 2023 saw a record-breaking demand for Lifeline’s resources.
Data released in March 2022 revealed that around 26,000 searches for support were made throughout the month of January alone, the highest ever to date.
Referral searches by Lifeline’s councillors specifically relating to financial troubles and homelessness also doubled between August 2022 and January 2023.
"Not all calls, all interactions, are about suicide though," Sonny said.
"Sometimes, people just want to talk to someone.
"Mental health is a hidden, silent killer and we need to be talking about it more.
"Because when someone doesn't talk about it? Well, that's the person we need to look out for.”
2023 has marked Lifeline Australia’s 60th year of helping Aussies through tough times.
The organisation was first founded in Sydney in 1963 by Reverend Dr Sir Alan Walker OBE, after he took a call from a distressed man who later died by suicide.
Walker vowed never to let isolation or lack of support cause more deaths and launched what later became Lifeline’s 24/7 telephone crisis line, 13 11 14.
Lifeline receives more than two-and-a-half million contacts seeking help each year within 42 centres nationwide.
Help is available, speak with someone today.
Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
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