WHEN Debbie first volunteered to become a telephone crisis supporter at Lifeline, she was a little worried. 

What if she couldn’t help the people who were calling for assistance?

As her time at Lifeline Central Victoria and Mallee entered its third year, Debbie said she had answered challenging calls. 

“The really comforting thing was, after the initial panic, all the training kicked in and it enabled me to handle the situation and to know what to do,” she said. 

The process of answering the phones to the 13 11 14 line begins well before someone in crisis calls. 

First comes all the training.

It begins with a two-day suicide intervention workshop, Lifeline Central Victoria and Mallee chief executive officer Leo Schultz said. 

Counselling skills and the Lifeline practice model round out the two-month initial training program.

“The volunteers continue to do professional development after that,” Mr Schultz said. 

Telephone crisis supporters are asked to commit to one, three-hour shift on the phones per week.

“It’s a very supportive environment,” Debbie said. 

“When we start a shift we have to check in with an in-shift support supervisor.

“Basically, they’re checking that we’re okay to do a shift, and they know we’re doing a shift so if we need to contact them, they know we’re there.

“Then you set yourself up, make yourself comfortable and go on the phones.”

She said it was important that telephone crisis supporters practiced self-care. 

“Take a break or two during that time to refresh yourself, and at the end of the shift we check in with the supervisor,” Debbie said. 

That debriefing session is intended to give the volunteers the opportunity to raise any issues that might not have been dealt with during the shift.

“Sometimes it’s handy to be able to just bring those little issues up and make sure you’re feeling okay,” Debbie said.

“If there’s a call you need support for during the shift, you can call the in-shift support supervisor to give you that support.”

Debbie said she had used those resources to help her answer an “extraordinarily challenging” call. 

Though she said she was initially startled, “straight away the training kicked in so I was able to deal with the situation.”

With the help of the in-shift support person, she was able to work through the call.

“It had a good ending,” Debbie said. 

“We don’t always know the ending of the calls  – that one, we did.”

Mr Schultz said the Lifeline practice model, the skills Lifeline used and the support available for volunteers meant they were never in a situation where they were out of their depth. 

Asked whether or not telephone crisis supporters felt a sense of personal responsibility for what happened to the callers, Debbie said it was beyond the scope of the role.

“We’re not there to be responsible for that person, or to fix their problems – we’re there to support them until they can get to some sort of better, more permanent and more personal support,” she said.

Though being a telephone crisis supporter could be difficult, Debbie said it was often “very rewarding”. 

“When you first answer the phone to someone they’re often very stressed or you can hear in their voice their anguish or pain,” she said.

“You can usually hear that they’re a little better by the end of the call, so hopefully you’ve done something to alleviate that distress in that time.”

Volunteers at the centre in Bendigo range from 83 years of age to about 19.

“You have to be over 18 to volunteer,” Mr Schultz said. 

From a peak of 100 volunteers, two years ago, the centre now has about 50 people answering the phones.

A drop in volunteers has resulted in a 12 per cent reduction in calls answered at the centre in the past financial year, compared to the one prior.

“Lifeline Central Victoria and Mallee desperately needs empathic, non-judgemental people who want to make a difference in the lives of Australians in crisis to volunteer as telephone crisis supporters with Lifeline,” Mr Schultz said.

He said telephone crisis supporters left Lifeline for a variety of reasons, “most not particularly associated with their volunteer work here”.

“Students graduating and changing courses, or relocating for employment… people’s employment circumstances change, or their family circumstances change...” Mr Schultz said. 

One of the reasons the volunteer numbers reduced was because the centre in Bendigo decided against holding one of its twice-yearly training groups, two years ago.

Mr Schultz said 100 volunteers was too much for the centre to realistically support. 

“We can support between 80 and 70,” he said. 

Lifeline Central Victoria and Mallee has arranged an information night for prospective volunteers, with support from La Trobe University and the City of Greater Bendigo.

The session starts at 6pm tonight at the La Trobe Art Institute at 121 View Street, Bendigo.

Mr Schultz invited people to email enquiries@lifelinecvm.org.au, call 5443 1330 or SMS 0427 417 935 for more information.