00:00 Across our chat, text and voice services, what we're observing is that we are experiencing
00:10 an unprecedented level of demand. And in terms of the reasons that people are reaching out
00:15 for support, financial distress is a significant issue. Employment also is something that's
00:23 featuring in those calls, people requesting support for both concerns about employment,
00:28 but financial distress in particular is one of the issues that is being raised very frequently.
00:34 And how do current daily call numbers, Anna, compare to other times of crisis in the past
00:38 like COVID and the global financial crisis?
00:43 Yes, so during COVID, we reached new peak volumes of people reaching out for support.
00:52 But what we're seeing now is that we're actually back to those peaks. And indeed, on Sundays,
00:58 we're actually exceeding the number of people who were reaching out during COVID who are
01:04 looking for support currently, Ros. So across the call, chat and text services, we're taking
01:13 around 4,000 contacts a day. So that really is an unprecedented level of demand.
01:19 Do you have enough people to cope?
01:24 So Lifeline, like other charities, are experiencing some challenges around recruiting and retaining
01:32 volunteers. We're a largely volunteer-based service. And at the moment, with people facing
01:38 financial distress, going back to work and family responsibilities, all of those factors
01:45 are really playing into those challenges around a volunteer-based workforce, Ros. So whilst
01:51 we do ensure that our call, chat and text services have the capacity to respond to everyone
01:59 that's reaching out for support, in terms of the medium to longer term, we're engaging
02:04 in a lot of planning activities to make sure that we can maintain those levels of support.
02:09 So Anna, when people reach out for help to Lifeline, what can they expect? What help
02:14 can you give them?
02:17 So Ros, when people reach out and they can do so 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Lifeline's
02:23 always there, what they can expect is that they'll speak to a highly trained crisis supporter
02:30 and that person will listen to them without judgment, hear what it is that they have to
02:35 say, make sure that they're safe and where it's appropriate, work with them in a way
02:41 that's led by the caller or the chatter or the texter to identify next steps. Sometimes
02:48 where it's appropriate, the crisis supporter might provide a referral to an additional
02:54 service, but I guess the experience broadly for people is to have someone listen to them
03:02 without judgment to what it is that's really on their minds.
03:06 And how long do those calls usually last for, Anna?
03:11 It does vary, but typically around 20 minutes would be the time that someone's engaged with
03:18 a crisis supporter.
03:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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