Safety net on call for mental health crises

Lifeline WA's focus on multi-faceted growth to better deliver its suicide intervention and prevention services has led to its recognition as Western Australian Business of the Year 2023 at Business News' RISE Awards.

The story of Lifeline WA is one of tenacity, discipline, and generosity of spirit, with its continued commitment to the community affirming its position as a vital WA business.

The organisation provides crisis and suicide intervention through a suite of mental health services, most notably its 24-7 crisis support helpline.

Lifeline WA acts as a safety net for the community, supporting those seeking help through periods of emotional crisis and at Business News' RISE Awards, the organisation also won Not For Profit/Charity of the Year.

The helpline is delivered in collaboration with Lifeline centres across Australia, meaning calls are routed nationwide and can be answered by a crisis supporter in a different state.

In 2016, more than 50,000 Western Australians called the service, but Lifeline WA only supported 25,737 crisis conversations overall.

Determined to increase its share of the national total, the not for profit declared its goal was to answer a number of calls equivalent to the total emanating from WA.

Seven years later, at the end of FY23, Lifeline WA surpassed its goal and supported 97,935 conversations, while 97,925 Western Australians called for help.

Chief executive Lorna MacGregor, who has led the organisation since January 2016, said Lifeline WA had been working hard to be there for more Western Australians.

“Over these seven years the demand for our services has increased dramatically. Doubling,” Ms MacGregor told Business News.

“There’s no eligibility criteria for our crisis support line; it’s universally accessible and every individual gets to define what their crisis is.

“People in our community have different backgrounds and history, and what mightn’t be a crisis in one person’s life may be a crisis for someone else.”

Lorna MacGregor (left) accepts the not for profit / charity award from Aveling managing director Lauren Gonzalez. Photo: Matt Jelonek

Following a significant drop in volunteers post-COVID, this year Lifeline WA launched its first advertising campaign.

Ms MacGregor said the campaign was met with an overwhelming response, with 1,000 people expressing interest in volunteering.

“Prior to that we never needed to advertise as there was always a steady pool of people who wanted to be a crisis supporter,” she said.

“We’re now sharing that campaign with other Lifelines around Australia to help them.

“Lifeline WA operates in that broader community, so we’re only as successful as the combined efforts of all Lifelines.”

Lifeline WA’s volunteer workforce has grown from 94 in 2016 to 350 this year, marking a strong comeback from the COVID decline.

Additionally, the not for profit has started the development of a new volunteer strategy to retain volunteers and establish strong management processes.

Ms MacGregor said this was the next stage to meet Lifeline WA’s promise to the community.

“The strategy will be the next dramatic change in our organisation, and it’s one we need,” she said.

In 2022, Lifeline WA established the overnight shift of 13 YARN, a specialised crisis support helpline run by Indigenous people for Indigenous people.

Ms MacGregor said the helpline had grown faster than anticipated, which reinforced the need for the specialist service. 

“The model of care we use for crisis support has been adapted to be culturally safe for Indigenous people,” she said.

“Lifeline WA has led Australia in the development of delivering crisis support safely and remotely, and that’s allowed some of our 13 YARN crisis supporters to work remotely on country.”

Training people to engage in supportive conversations is a core part of Lifeline WA’s mission, and in 2021 the business launched a commercial training arm to expand this focus.

Social enterprise Workplace helps companies better support their people by prioritising mental health in the workplace.

The training has been delivered to 5,500 people this year.

One branch of this program is a peer support initiative called Resourceful Mind, which was designed in collaboration with the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia to support fly-in, fly-out workers.

Resourceful Mind was recognised as a winner at the 2022 Australian Business Excellence Awards and the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety’s 2022 Work Health and Safety Excellence Awards.

Workplace has enabled Lifeline WA to converge its mission to prevent suicide with its need for commercial backing.

In FY23, the program generated a profit margin of 30 per cent, which Ms MacGregor said was reinvested in Lifeline WA’s services.

“Our forecasting shows we’ll need to grow capacity of our crisis support by about 8 to 10 per cent per year, so we can’t only rely on cornerstone government funding, donations and fundraising,” she said.

“We need the commercial string as a third pillar to ensure we can invest in growth.”