The Lifeline team at Canberra’s National Carillon, Queen Elizabeth II Island, to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. Photo: Naziya Alvi.
Canberra has more mental healthcare providers per person than anywhere else in Australia. Yet in just one year, the number of Canberrans reaching out to Lifeline has risen from 19,000 to 36,000.
It is a confronting contradiction as the city marked World Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday (10 September), with Lifeline Canberra preparing to answer another significant number — its one-millionth call since the local service began in 1971.
For Lifeline Canberra interim CEO Adam Miller, the numbers show that having services available does not necessarily mean people can access the help they need at the moment they need it.
Behind those calls are people struggling with everything from financial pressures and the cost of living to separation, loneliness and isolation.
But Mr Miller said one issue stood out.
“I think the biggest one is the isolation, loneliness and separation.”
Lifeline Canberra president Warren Epps said there was no single explanation for why more people were struggling.
“I think it’s multi-layered,” he said. “I think the world is a difficult place at the moment.”
He pointed to pressures in people’s personal lives, including difficulties breaking into the housing market, alongside a broader sense that the world itself had become “a scarier place”, with greater uncertainty leaving people feeling less secure.
The increase comes despite new research finding the ACT has 320.4 mental healthcare providers for every 100,000 residents — well ahead of Victoria at 277.7 and Western Australia at 253.5.
The research, compiled by health insurance comparison service iSelect, counted psychiatrists, psychologists, accredited mental health social workers, mental health nurses and mental health occupational therapists.
But the broader picture is less reassuring.
The ACT recorded the second-highest prevalence of 12-month mental disorder in the data analysed, at 25.5 per cent. Government mental health expenditure was $337 per person, while there were 354.5 mental health-related online searches per 100,000 residents. Overall, the ACT ranked fifth among the states and territories on the study’s Mental Health Care Index.
The study itself cautions that its ranking draws on several datasets from different periods and “may not be representative of real life”.
On Lifeline’s phones, however, Mr Miller said one part of that real-life picture was clear: the existence of professionals did not remove waiting periods or the need for support between appointments.
“A lot of the times, we get calls from people that are waiting … where people are between visits or waiting to get in to see somebody, but they still need somebody to talk to,” he said.
Some callers are experiencing suicidal thoughts. Where intervention is required, Lifeline contacts emergency services.
But Mr Miller stressed people did not have to reach that point before calling. The growing demand was also putting pressure on the people at the other end of the phone.
About 3000 calls are made to Lifeline’s national 13 11 14 crisis line each day and, Mr Miller said, there were simply not enough volunteers across the service to answer every person. Canberra’s volunteers, however, were answering calls at a rate he said was well above the national volunteering average.
That makes Lifeline Canberra’s looming one-millionth call a milestone with an uncomfortable dual meaning.
“It’s a difficult milestone to celebrate, but it should be celebrated,” Mr Miller said.
At dawn on World Suicide Prevention Day, Lifeline Canberra staff gathered with members of the community for its annual Out of the Shadows Walk, remembering those who have died by suicide and standing alongside those living with mental health challenges.
And amid the statistics — one million calls, 36,000 Canberrans in a year and hundreds of mental health professionals across the territory — Mr Miller’s message is much simpler.
“Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call us for whatever you’re feeling. There’s always going to be somebody there that’s ready to listen.”
