According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2,132 deaths by suicide were registered in Australia in 2009. National Lifeline, the leading provider of suicide prevention services in Australia, provides support for the many people in crisis every day who may attempt or consider suicide, as well as the families and friends caring or grieving for them. Some Lifeline centres also assist people experiencing a variety of issues such as abuse, addiction, problem gambling, trauma, anxiety, depression, anger, financial hardship and relationship problems. There are 42 Lifeline centres around Australia.
The Lifeline Northern Beaches centre has served the Northern Beaches area of NSW for over 40 years and provides a range of services in addition to the 24-hour telephone crisis support line. It also offers a Phone Support Service which receives referrals from the National Lifeline crisis telephone service and provides call backs for a short time to adults experiencing a crisis, with a focus on supporting and linking them to informal support or professional services within the local community. Lifeline Northern Beaches also provides face-to-face counselling, financial counselling, emergency relief such as financial and material assistance to those experiencing financial difficulties, and the Community Visitors Scheme which is a Commonwealth Government initiative to establish links between people living in aged care facilities and their local community.
The psychologist’s work
The Counselling Manager oversees and supervises the volunteer counsellors, support group leaders and provisional psychologists and counsellors undertaking placements at Lifeline Northern Beaches, assisting them to develop the complex skills to provide support for people in crisis.
Lifeline Northern Beaches offers seven-day-a-week access to low cost (sometimes no cost) face-to-face counselling for individuals, couples and groups, and the majority of counsellors are volunteers. All are members of professional organisations such as the APS or the Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CAPA) NSW. Volunteer face-to-face counsellors also provide support groups to the local community, with popular groups including Suicide Bereavement, Men’s Anger Management, Women’s Anger Management, Depression, Anxiety, Grief and Loss, Gambling and New Parents Support.
The Counselling Manager also organises professional development and training for volunteers. Every year Lifeline Northern Beaches trains about 70 volunteers in telephone crisis support skills, offering 10 regular quality continuing education sessions to counsellors, and telephone crisis supporters. In the past year this has included sessions about mindfulness, medications for psychological conditions, obsessive compulsive disorder and boundaries. In addition, the Counselling Manager facilitates educational and awareness programs to organisations, the general public and volunteers on topics such as: trauma psychoeducation; ASIST, a suicide first aid program where participants learn to recognise when someone may be at risk of suicide and respond in ways that help increase their immediate safety and link them to further help; and DV-alert, a two-day workshop which was developed by Lifeline Australia to teach community members and workers how to recognise and respond to domestic violence.
| My Lifeline career began when I joined as a volunteer telephone counsellor (now known as a ‘telephone crisis supporter’), then moved on to volunteering as a face-to-face counsellor until my appointment as Counselling Manager seven years ago. I am continually impressed, and feel humbled, by the many capable, qualified and compassionate people who have worked for Lifeline Northern Beaches as volunteers and employees. Working at Lifeline Northern Beaches has offered me the opportunity to apply my training and skills in a wide range of situations. This role is fulfilling as it offers variety and challenge. I feel that I am providing a valuable support and meaningful contribution to the community through my work as a psychologist in this organisation. I continually liaise with other agencies, allied health and medical professionals who value our efforts. We generally do not duplicate the work of other services and we offer counselling across a wide range of clinical issues at low cost, and sometimes no cost, which is very rare. As such we are unique and fill a valuable gap in mental health services. |