Lifelinehelpline Avis 104

After an Incredibly long wait time, The person just repeated what I said and then hung up on me. This is a useless service under the guise of support for suicidal people. What a joke. Shameful that this is our country’s “assistance” line

Don’t even bother so much for a lifeline I was left unheard, unsupported and feeling worse off I thought I’d finally been able to reach out for free help and nope I’m left even more defeated

If you need the push to end your life. Calling here for help will result in immediate disconnectiom Everytime without even talking to a fng soul

I didn't feel like talking so I used the chat.

This has got to be the most useless and unhelpful place around with the most useless and unhelpful responses with at least a 5 minute wait between each.

"Oh, that doesn't sound nice. How long has this been happening"

"It sounds like this has been affecting you. What do you think happened to lead to this?"

"I can hear things have been tough. That's awful"

"I can hear this has been really challenging for you. How have you been managing?"

and after more than 30 minutes...

"It seems there's no one to assist you. How can I best support you right now?

Half an hour and no kind of support or help had even begun. Just generic and pointless questions and statements.

Luckily, a friend messaged me and managed to pull me out of the deep end long enough for me to get to hospital. I do not advise using Lifeline. You will get much better and useful help just chatting to AI, which is depressing but true.

These reviews are really difficult to edit. So I'm writing a second review because there was quite a bit more I wanted to say.

Please do not think lifeline are trained professionals, they are uni students clocking their prac hours. I don't think it really has anything to do with time or quality, it's about call volume and statistics. They've answered their 20 calls for the day, now they can go to the pub and party and act like obnoxious rich entitled university students where student social clubs are more important than life itself. These people have never been through anything, I called once I was going through serious problems with my husband who was hiding a closet alcohol problem, gambling and other addiction issues. Life was hell, I had no idea who I had married as he lied about himself the entire time i had known him and i wasn't handling it. I asked what do I do? ... the obnoxious arrogant twit on the other end of the phone, said and I quote:

"What do you think you should do?"

I couldn't believe it. I was being spoken to like this in crisis with all this going on.

Lifeline is a government agency. It is funded by the government, it has KPI's and other requirements.

What lifeline actually is, is the government's response to the Australian Suicide Statistics.

And, just like every other statistical problem in Australia, closing the Gap, the current DV stat's etc... the government's response is to throw a whole bunch of money at it. Voila. Problem solved.

They do not care, they do not run anything properly, it's a statistics game.
We created a service.
It has answered X amount of calls
We have sent out X amount of ambulances
We have saved X amount of lives.

That's it.

Now can I get back to my uni social drinkathon while I live off my parents money?

Seriously. That is who is in the other end of the phone. And these are the type of people running this service. They probably spent more effort organising their next long charity luncheon with whatever local MP to show off how much they care, than they do putting effort into answering their callers.

I have read other people’s experience and I do not want to be dismissive of them at all but I think a highly depressed mind that has given up on everything is going to be negative wired, so I’m not really sure what the point is of a review on this particular service and what it does.

I acknowledge that Lifeline has trained councillors and there’s an almost procedural way they go about things. However I have had some good conversations with them in my darkest times, I remember experiencing profound grief and sadness and the councillor helped me by talking about how other cultures grieve around the world. This added perspectives outside of my closed, walled in vision and the frustration I was feeling by apathetic social conformity and abandonment of my support networks.

I think that they are there to validate your feelings, gently and without judgement and listen. And really guys, that’s enough. As someone who has been dismissed and misunderstood his whole life, that’s POWERFUL. And actual empathy and human connection is so important in your darkest times. I hope they never get replaced with ai like some people here are suggesting.

I hope whoever’s reading this knows they are not alone and to keep fighting for brighter days. There are amazing people out there who volunteer their time to help others and that is of the greatest humanity and can give you reason to go on just in itself.

well that was the most unhelpful conversation ever. the lifeline crisis supporter did not help with my call of help as a depressed woman that has been feeling suicidal for the past few months.

Just absolute no help or guidance with my situation...

Last time I contacted them I was su*cidal. After explaining my trauma (undiagnosed ptsd it turns out) and what i wanted to do the man who answered the call arrogantly demanded to know "well what do you expect me to do about it?".
I have never again called them.

I rang to get advice about a relative not doing very well. The "councillor " I use the term loosely, wasnt helpful at all. Just repeated the same thing in different ways, and made it about me and how I'm doing. I don't need help for me, I need help so I know how to help my relative who isn't doing well ! Don't waste your time ringing life line . Nit very helpful at all

They literally just let me sit there waiting in a 9/10 crisis. I waited 17 minutes before they responded and it was some generic response about how their team cares about my well-being. What a load of absolute bs. The only thing that stopped me ending it all after that cherry on top 'conversation', was a stranger in the street on the way to do so.

Unfortunately I went to leave a review but read the ones left prior. OMG. They are saying the same negative things as myself especially in regards to the suicide issue. I felt as if the conversation was scripted and after speaking with others who mentioned this to me personally and now reviews here saying the same...why are they still going? Because there is no other counselling service 24/7.
The suicide thing I believe just a funding thing as they ask at ridiculous times within 2 or 3 minutes when it's not needed and if you ask them not to ask THE question they still do. By the way the cut off point for a call is 30 minutes unless you mention suicide even if you tried 40 years ago but won't extend much beyond half hour.

Absolutely terrible. Tried to message and live chat and kept getting the same generic ai responses. Why even bother

Texted and Emailed LifeLine. Told them I was suicidal and gave context.

The person on the email told me: Thanks for your interest with our services. Unfortunately, we are not dealing with a suicide. Can you please call this number 0800 567-567. I wish you all the best.

So essentially, I was dismissed on the email and told to deal with it myself.

With the Whatsapp text it felt like I was talking to a robot. None of the responses were in context to what I was saying. It felt like this guy was reading questions from a general script and everytime I would answer a question he would just ask me the next question on the script without actually listening to what I said in my response and commenting on what I shared.

I asked about their services and he told me what they offered and what I prefer. I told him what I prefer and why. He just responds with the procedural like "You are brave and have taken a hard step contacting us." Like okay I know. And?

It felt like all the pressure was on me to uphold the conversation and that's not great when you already have the pressure of ending your life. If I didnt respond to that statement, he would've definitely left me hanging. After half hour of waiting to hear if he would actually say something I can respond to, I realised this guy was gonna leave me hanging, so I just responded "Okay." because what am I now supposed to say. The procedural, general, ticking off of a list of questions without actually listening to my answers started.

It's like:
Counselor: " How do you feel about that?"
Me: Gives a detailed desription
Counselor: "Anyway what would you say to someone if they were you?"
Me: Gives a detailed description
Counselor: "Anyway. How long have you been feeling this way?"

Some questions are also rhetorical. You tell them you're suicidal and distressed and they will still ask questions like "So it sounds like you've been feeling this for a long time and it weighs heavily on you , right?" If a persons feelings weigh so heavy they're willing to kill themselves, then is it not obvious that it weighs heavy. You will be going nowhere slowly.

It feels like its just another day for them and they only care about the procedure. I had to remind the counselor that people's lives are at stake.

I feel more listened to with ChatGPT than with the counselors from LifeLine. And it's sad because LifeLine is literally supposed to be peoples lifeline.

I thought to myself that I could actually do a better job of helping people like me than the 'trained counselors' and I'm not a professional at all. They don't get down to specifics or the root of your problem. I wasn't even asked why I want to die and I think that is the first questions, besides finding out about access you have to support systems, you should ask someone in order to know how to help them.

And it's just sad to think how many people actually died reaching out for help and realising their last resort doesn't actually care about them, isn't equipped to help them and is not even listening to them.

You will get no real help or advice. Just a bunch of rhetorical questions and procedural politeness.

Tried messaging, 40-minute wait (fair enough it was 10:30 PM). The counsellor just kept trying to diagnose the situation, which I had already stated. They told me to use the same strategies I had said didn't work, and dismissed me before providing much insightful or meaningful advice. I understand that there are limitations of messaging and that they are busy and not trained psychologists, but counsellors. However, when some people call, their lives are at stake, and the service I was providing would not help anyone struggling at their worst.

I wanted to talk about something good that happened today and was trampled all over by the call taker who also dismissed the validity of lived experience.

If you want the ultimate proof that there is no one who cares or can help you, please call Lifeline.
You will get a woman who, after half a minute's pause, answers 'mhmm', to everything you say.
This is like the final piece of bread in a suicide sandwich.
The world doesn't care, there is no help, to verify this call LIFELINE.
Mhmm.

Lets be honest, everybody says that lifeline is a great website and if you need help, that you should reach out there but seriously, when i'm thinking about suicide i go and try and talk, tell me why i had to wait an hour, i cried for that hour about this, and to think of it i would've died by now if it was really bad, i'm not mad, i'm sad.

Respectfully why are you being condescending and incredibly rude to the person ringing you wanting support and help?

Replace them with ChatGPT. If I had to rely on them, I probably would be already dead.