LIFELINE Hunter will this weekend hold its first fundraising event since the pandemic, which will support it to respond to an increased number of calls for help.
Regional general manager Julie Wicks said the two-day book fair being held at the Newcastle Showground Exhibition Centre on Saturday and Sunday was a COVID-safe event that would include 20,000 books arranged in 60 categories, a children's book area, clothes for sale and a coffee van.
She said it aimed to raise funds for - and awareness of - its free services.
This includes its 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention services, as well as the weekday telehealth service it introduced in the past year that connects callers to six free counselling sessions without a doctor's referral.
"We do have available appointments, whereas we know a lot of private practices have quite long waiting lists," she said.
"We can normally fit someone in within a few days, not weeks on end waiting. We've had floods, fires, COVID, floods again, it's been a really rough 12 months."
Ms Wicks said the number of calls increased by 25 per cent from about 2700 to 3300 a day across the country at the height of the lockdown.
Some people experienced anxiety for the first time.
She said Lifeline was still receiving more than 3000 calls a day and expected this to become the new normal.
She said some callers had financial pressure coinciding with the end of JobKeeper and there was still a lot of uncertainty.
"Adapting to change is really hard generally, but change you haven't prepared for and that came so quickly, people are still dealing with how that affected them."
