A national mental health charity is fighting to save a telephone helpline it runs in collaboration with Victoria police.
As part of the Victoria police electronic referral project, mental health staff at Sane Australia provide a call-back service to vulnerable and at-risk people referred by police.
When police encounter someone with a mental health problem, they let Sane Australia know and a counsellor calls the person and provides counselling, support and referrals.
However, the project, which has run for eight months, is in jeopardy, says Sane Australia’s chief executive, Jack Heath.
“Every year, 1.2 million people across the state experience mental health issues and as many as 20,000 attempt to take their own life,” Heath said.
“Police are often the first point of call, with family members and friends calling 000 when they need help. However, the police are not mental health professionals.
“That’s where the Victoria police electronic referral project comes in, with a team of trained experts ready to call and assist at-risk and vulnerable Victorians, based on a system of police referrals.”
A Sane spokesman said it had made several attempts to meet the health minister, Martin Foley, but the minister had not responded.
Foley has since arranged a meeting with Sane Australia after Guardian Australia contacted his office for comment. But he did not commit to providing funding.
“Telephone counselling plays an important role supporting people in urgent need,” he said.
“That’s why we support a number of phone counselling services that give callers the support they need when they need it most.
“We’ll continue to support these services, because they provide an essential point of contact to Victorians in times of psychological distress, and we look forward to discussing with Sane representatives ways we can better support Victorians in crisis.”
The health and human services department funds several telephone counselling services. In 2015-16 the government invested approximately $2.5m in telephone counselling, including $1,431,385 for Lifeline, $925,195 for SuicideLine and $125,000 for Griefline.
These services took more than 178,000 calls from Victorians in 2013-14. The state government also contributes $2.2m a year to the mental health organisation beyondblue which also has a telephone counselling service.
The government also helps fund a mental health and police response initiative which embeds mental health clinicians with police officers to help police assess and triage mental health problems.
Sane Australia’s help centre manager, Suzanne Leckie, who has been working on the Victoria police electronic referral project, said Sane’s callback service deserved government funding too.
She has launched a petition calling on the premier, Daniel Andrews, to support the initiative. The running costs have so far been absorbed by Sane.
“When a police officer meets someone that needs mental health support, it’s me they contact,” Leckie said.
“I’ve been a psychologist for 16 years and I know how difficult it can be for people to access the help they need. The reason our service works is that we don’t wait to hear from people – we reach out to them directly based on police referrals. We make calls to people who have never, and probably would never, access services.
“It can be a tough job, but it’s the relief and sense of hope that I hear in people’s voices towards the end of each call that keeps me going. I know each and every call has the potential to save a life.”
On the program’s last day of operation in February, her staff responded to a referral from police about a young man threatening to take his own life, Leckie said.
“A trained helpline professional was able to counsel him and connect him to the support services he needed,” she said. “For $75 this Victorian man’s life was saved.”
• If you need support you can call: Lifeline 13 11 14, Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800, MensLine 1300 78 99 78.
