Lifeline Central West executive director Alex Ferguson said the organisation is in urgent need of more volunteer crisis support counsellors to assist people in need over the phone to answer a shortfall across the region.
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With COVID-19 continuing to have a significant impact on the mental health of individuals across the Central West, Mr Ferguson says phone calls requesting crisis support are at an all-time high.
"The old, pre-COVID norm was around 2200 calls a day nationally, and now it's about 3500 calls a day," he said.
"A lot of Lifeline's larger call centres are under the pump because of the current lockdown situation in Sydney and snap lockdowns in Brisbane and Melbourne, which has increased the demand for regional call centres to lift their answering capacity.
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"We're looking to train around 60 new counsellors across the Central West: 20 for Dubbo, 20 for Orange and at least 10 for Bathurst."
Mr Ferguson said Lifeline call centres in the Central West have been flat out for some time, especially over the past month as the COVID-19 situation continues to escalate in Sydney.
"In July alone, we contributed about 1500 hours of counselling to the Lifeline Australia network, which we need to lift significantly," he said.
"Training takes around six weeks, and the average crisis call is around 20 minutes, though some can naturally extend to well over an hour depending on the caller, so a thick skin is certainly required."
Mr Ferguson said the COVID-19 has caused a significant amount of social, mental and financial pressure for individuals and families across Australia.
"We're looking to train around 60 new counsellors across the Central West: 20 for Dubbo, 20 for Orange and at least 10 for Bathurst."
- Lifeline Central West executive director Alex Ferguson
"COVID-19 is not going away any time soon, this is perfectly clear, so we need to ensure we have ample room to answer as many calls as possible," he said.
Lifeline Central West recently received ClubGRANTS funding to assist in the training of volunteer crisis support counsellors.
For more information or to express interest in becoming a counsellor, visit lifelinecentralwest.org.au or the Facebook page.
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