Lifeline Central West has experienced an increase in calls from distressed members of the LGBTIQ+ community since same-sex marriage campaigning got underway, chief executive Alex Ferguson said.
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While statistics were not good enough on a daily basis to empirically prove the rise, Mr Ferguson said that, anecdotally, there was “a general belief that we are receiving more calls from those people”. He also thought it likely that members of the LGBTIQ+ community in rural areas were harder hit by the campaign than their city counterparts.
“I can’t say empirically, but … I would believe that to be the case,” Mr Ferguson said.
“I think one of the regrettable realities of living in rural or regional areas is that our society is a generally older society and probably a bit more conservative and it has always been difficult for people of LGHBTI persuasion to exist in our communities.
“There is no doubt that this current debate is not helping people of that persuasion in our society.”
He said they had not seen a rise in the number of ‘no’ voters calling Lifeline, but insisted people on both sides of the debate be respectful of other people’s views.
“I think all the sensitivity is accruing on the LGHBTI side of the debate and we can say that, historically, LGHBTI people have been overly represented in our call statistics and indeed they have been overly represented in suicide statistics as well,” Mr Ferguson said.
“Lifeline Central West’s position is very clear. Whatever the outcome, we would hope that the debate is conduced in a respectful manner. Because at then end of the day once this vote is over, once the ballot is in, once the politicians have had their say on the matter, we all have to live with ourselves in the community.
“We need to get over this without too much collateral damage.
“It’s a difficult discussion to have within the community but it’s one that the government has asked for and it’s now got to go through the process and at the end of the day whatever they come up with, democracy dictates that we live with it.”
Groups such as ReachOut, Headspace and BeyondBlue have also reported increased calls or website traffic since the campaign kicked off in August. Opposition leader Bill Shorten has called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to invest more in frontline mental health services struggling with the surging demand.
“It's his responsibility to ensure services are equipped to deal with this unprecedented demand,” Mr Shorten told Fairfax Media on Monday.
The government did announce a $47 million boost to suicide prevention services in May, but the funding was not tied to a public vote on same-sex marriage.