The suicide prevention service Lifeline Top End has closed its shopfront service after the Northern Territory government refused its request for further funding, the head of the service has said.
Lifeline Top End had provided face to face counselling and community engagement for the past decade but on Monday closed the doors on its Darwin-based service. Callers to the hotline will still go through to the national call centre.
Lifeline had approached government “for the final time” in the past few weeks and learned there would be no increase on current funding level of $200,000 a year, Andrew Warton, chair of the Lifeline Top End board, told ABC radio.
The organisation, which had 35 trained volunteer counsellors, was seeking $450,000 a year to answer about 700 monthly calls.
The Northern Territory has the highest suicide rate in the country, according to data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In 2015, the Northern Territory saw 21 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with a national rate of 12.6. The Northern Territory rate has increased by more than 38% since 2006, and the Australian rate by 23%. The rate among Indigenous Australians, who make up more than 30% of the NT population, was 25.5 per 100,000 people in 2015.
The previous Country Liberal party government cut funding to Lifeline Top End by a reported $150,000 a year in 2015-16, and Warton said the organisation only got through the last year with community support and intensive fundraising.
“It’s simply not enough to stay in the business you need to sustain and answer the number of calls Lifeline needs to answer,” he told ABC radio.
But the NT health minister, Natasha Fyles, said advice from the health department was that $200,000 was “more than enough” for Lifeline to provide the service it had been contracted to provide.
Fyles said the new government had tried a “fresh approach”, negotiating with Lifeline Top End “in good faith”, and the $200,000 was still available to it.
The NT government was now negotiating with Lifeline Australia, she said.
Fyles later told media the NT government had to use the “finite tax dollars in the most appropriate way” and any other services Lifeline wished to introduce were a matter for its board.
“Lifeline wanted close to half a million dollars but the NT government was not in a position to provide that amount for any additional services here in the territory.”
She said the $200,000 covered the phone service only and would not be drawn on why the government did not want to further fund the face-to-face counselling.
She said the government had an “evidence-based approach” to its target of halving the suicide rate over the next decade.
“We’re rolling out a number of other key initiatives, including $3m for supported accommodation to Territorians in need,” Fyles said. “It’s an absolutely important area and this government is committed to this space.”
Fyles pledged no non-governmental organisations’ services in the NT would see a reduction in funding under her government and noted the pre-election commitment to introduce five-year contracts to give more certainty to NGOs.
• For information and support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636
