Jo Goodwin counts her volunteer work with Lifeline as a privilege, and she is needed now more than ever as calls to Lifeline in March and over Easter jumped to their highest levels in nearly 60 years.
Ms Goodwin first heard about Lifeline volunteering while studying law in New Zealand over a decade ago, but parked the idea in the back of her mind.
Then in 2013, she saw a Lifeline banner across the main street in Albury — and signed up.
She has worked at the Albury-Wodonga Lifeline branch for the past seven years, for three hour shifts, often during the day.
As a small branch, there is a maximum of four people in the call centre, making social distancing easy.
Lifeline offers a 24 hour hotline for anyone to call for support while going through a crisis.
"We're just providing a very safe space for someone to speak … to tell their story," Ms Goodwin said.
COVID-19 Challenges
Lifeline received almost 90,000 calls in March an increase of 25 per cent over the same time last year.
"[March] was our biggest month ever, for Lifeline Australia, in its 57-year history," Ms Goodwin said.
The service reported that half the callers wanted to discuss coronavirus.
Ms Goodwin said the pandemic was exacerbating pre-existing problems such as "mental health challenges, loneliness, relationship issues, whatever it is."
"COVID has come along and just put a whole extra layer of complexity on that."
"When you hear what people are going through it puts things into perspective."
Dealing with a crisis
Lifeline is always looking for more volunteers to help answer calls, but you need a certain characteristic.
Rather than trying to fix a problem, Ms Goodwin said often the best thing to do is simply listen.
"People generally don't expect that someone can solve their problem, they would just really like someone to listen and that's something we can do for our friends and family."
All volunteers are given enormous amounts of training and support before they can answer phone calls.
"We all have judgements, because that's how we are as human beings, but in this job we park it right at the back of our mind."
"We become pretty bomb-proof really."
She said verbalising issues in our lives can help us to process them.
"I think there's something very liberating about an opportunity to speak your truth with your story," she said.
"It gives them a chance to hear their own story and that's really powerful."
Self care is not selfish
As a crisis support worker, Ms Goodwin often hears the worst aspects of a persons life, and said it does take its toll.
"We give empathy through caring and when you care that impacts on you."
She said Lifeline provides a debrief after calls and always supports its workers.
When she finishes a shift, Ms Goodwin does things she enjoys, to ensure her own wellbeing and encourages everyone to do the same.
"If we don't look after our own health and wellbeing then it's very difficult to do what we need to do."
Lifeline is looking for more volunteers, especially in the current climate.
