Lifelinehelpline Avis 

I am a volunteer. While some of the shift supervisors are passionate about what they do and provide thoughtful feedback and guidance others just don’t care or worse seem jaded. I had one ISS tell me to wrap up a call with someone struggling with thoughts of s%%%%%e because they had to get to a meeting. One ISS went AWOL in the middle of a crisis call, another is just a flat out bully. I wouldn’t recommended volunteering. I have quit recently. Thanks Lifeline.

I rang life line for some Support on losing my Dad. They showed no interest, Support and they were yawning and hung up! I got off the phone feeling worse!

Some of the therapist you can actually have a meaningful back and forth with (real personalities who have learnt personal insight and compassion through their own suffering) and the other therapists provide purely scripted responses instead of authentic engagement (logically trained).

The therapists who don’t have any original personality of their own I find will kill you faster than not having talked to them at all. They leave you feeling more disconnected than before you called. Suffering human beings want friends they can talk to, not trained responders following their rigid scripts and protocols.

Thank you to the therapists who listen with their body, and provide real, human, spontaneous intuitive conversation with you, like a loving mother or father, from a real emotional desire to care.

Please DO NOT hire therapist who aren’t talented or highly personal, it’s potentially killing people. Just because someone wants to become a psychologist because it makes them money does not mean they are gifted enough to help others. We need real healers who have something to offer not soulless robots reciting their scripts. You are hurting desperate people who need deep emotional intelligence.

Called up told volunteer I was a loser and a failure. Volunteer groaned like I was boring her. She asked me why I told her I let my wife down. She told me I made a “mistake”. I reminded calmly that she doesn’t even know what this is about and she calls it a mistake. She got upset and said “if you’re going to attack my choice of words we’re not going to get anywhere” and she then hung up. Never asked if I was ok, nothing. I called because I am grieving my deceased wife.

I was hoping they would help me to navigate lifeline by suggesting I need a social worker. They refused to give me their name so I knew who I was speaking who I was speaking to. I had many things that I was was going through bothe mental and serious health issues and I dont feel they were listening to me despite that distress I was in and instead of referring me to find someone that could help my navigate all the things I was going through, they told me my 40 minutes was up and thanked me for calling lifeline. The woman I spoke to shouldn't be there, she made me feel even worse.

I dont know whats worse: the thousands upon thousands of dollars i spent on private insurance or these snarky assholes. 4th time is the charm. Fire, knife and gas. It will work this time. Despicable shit world that is only going to get worse and a country thats full of intolerable maggots. False hope is far worse than no hope and why anyone would offer either in indescribably cruel. If there was an afterlife id see you there. Glad that's not the case.

I reached out to lifeline online chat last night after I received some devastating news. I just wanted to talk to someone about it because I was so upset.
I did the online chat this time I had called them in the past and that wasn't a great experience. I thought online chat would be better. All the questions were around Wether I was going to committe suicide and I said no then I was asked if I had anyone I could talk to about my problem and I'm thinking I'm talking to you now. Then ask me to rate them and ended the chat saying contact us again in the 24/7 hours of you want to talk again.
I wouldn't recommend lifeline to a friend or family member after my experience it felt like I was talking to a bot with a time limit.

I started a chat about a suicidal person I am friends with.
The counsellor began by misgendering them. They also used incorrect grammar at times. Their sentence structure and writing style was not unlike that of a romance scammer.
Their second question was about how the situation was impacting me. I was extremely worried about my friend at the time, and was not interested in myself. I was completely fine. 
Next, they asked what kind of support I felt would be most helpful to the person. Why would I reach out if I knew what kind of support they needed?? Shouldn't the councillor know? 
It was shortly after this that I realised how much of a bother the 'typing indicator' was. It kept making the messages jump up when the councillor was typing, and down again whenever they stopped. This was quite frequent. I would have preferred an indicator that didn't disrupt messages.
After that, they suggested some things. One option was impossible for me to do. The other option was providing me with some online services for free counselling, in relation to mental health. I thought Lifeline was a mental health counselling service, where I could talk about suicide. 

I have waited for a couple years to say my review... so I could speak logically about lifeline services!! First of let me say that not all were horrible a few from this service were alright.. but to be honest this is not a very good service!!

I got attacked like they knew about my life but also acted like they didn't know anything at all!! I got treated like I was a gaslighter when in reality I got triggered so badly especially after I left my religion when I needed support the most and I felt like someone wanted me to feel all alone!! My opinion was never valid but at the same time I got treated... like I had to say so much!! I felt like this was some kind of holistic therapy but they seem agitated whenever I told my side of the story or if I said a fact!! I felt like I was powerless speaking to them but at the same time psychology facts say otherwise!!

I got treated like I wanted to control others or that I was changing their perception!! I got treated like I needed to be humbled and that I never listened to my loved ones...

I had to heal from this service all on my own!!! Thanks for making me more STRONGER!!! I apparently needed it!!!

After an Incredibly long wait time, The person just repeated what I said and then hung up on me. This is a useless service under the guise of support for suicidal people. What a joke. Shameful that this is our country’s “assistance” line

Don’t even bother so much for a lifeline I was left unheard, unsupported and feeling worse off I thought I’d finally been able to reach out for free help and nope I’m left even more defeated

If you need the push to end your life. Calling here for help will result in immediate disconnectiom Everytime without even talking to a fng soul

I didn't feel like talking so I used the chat.

This has got to be the most useless and unhelpful place around with the most useless and unhelpful responses with at least a 5 minute wait between each.

"Oh, that doesn't sound nice. How long has this been happening"

"It sounds like this has been affecting you. What do you think happened to lead to this?"

"I can hear things have been tough. That's awful"

"I can hear this has been really challenging for you. How have you been managing?"

and after more than 30 minutes...

"It seems there's no one to assist you. How can I best support you right now?

Half an hour and no kind of support or help had even begun. Just generic and pointless questions and statements.

Luckily, a friend messaged me and managed to pull me out of the deep end long enough for me to get to hospital. I do not advise using Lifeline. You will get much better and useful help just chatting to AI, which is depressing but true.

These reviews are really difficult to edit. So I'm writing a second review because there was quite a bit more I wanted to say.

Please do not think lifeline are trained professionals, they are uni students clocking their prac hours. I don't think it really has anything to do with time or quality, it's about call volume and statistics. They've answered their 20 calls for the day, now they can go to the pub and party and act like obnoxious rich entitled university students where student social clubs are more important than life itself. These people have never been through anything, I called once I was going through serious problems with my husband who was hiding a closet alcohol problem, gambling and other addiction issues. Life was hell, I had no idea who I had married as he lied about himself the entire time i had known him and i wasn't handling it. I asked what do I do? ... the obnoxious arrogant twit on the other end of the phone, said and I quote:

"What do you think you should do?"

I couldn't believe it. I was being spoken to like this in crisis with all this going on.

Lifeline is a government agency. It is funded by the government, it has KPI's and other requirements.

What lifeline actually is, is the government's response to the Australian Suicide Statistics.

And, just like every other statistical problem in Australia, closing the Gap, the current DV stat's etc... the government's response is to throw a whole bunch of money at it. Voila. Problem solved.

They do not care, they do not run anything properly, it's a statistics game.
We created a service.
It has answered X amount of calls
We have sent out X amount of ambulances
We have saved X amount of lives.

That's it.

Now can I get back to my uni social drinkathon while I live off my parents money?

Seriously. That is who is in the other end of the phone. And these are the type of people running this service. They probably spent more effort organising their next long charity luncheon with whatever local MP to show off how much they care, than they do putting effort into answering their callers.

I have read other people’s experience and I do not want to be dismissive of them at all but I think a highly depressed mind that has given up on everything is going to be negative wired, so I’m not really sure what the point is of a review on this particular service and what it does.

I acknowledge that Lifeline has trained councillors and there’s an almost procedural way they go about things. However I have had some good conversations with them in my darkest times, I remember experiencing profound grief and sadness and the councillor helped me by talking about how other cultures grieve around the world. This added perspectives outside of my closed, walled in vision and the frustration I was feeling by apathetic social conformity and abandonment of my support networks.

I think that they are there to validate your feelings, gently and without judgement and listen. And really guys, that’s enough. As someone who has been dismissed and misunderstood his whole life, that’s POWERFUL. And actual empathy and human connection is so important in your darkest times. I hope they never get replaced with ai like some people here are suggesting.

I hope whoever’s reading this knows they are not alone and to keep fighting for brighter days. There are amazing people out there who volunteer their time to help others and that is of the greatest humanity and can give you reason to go on just in itself.

well that was the most unhelpful conversation ever. the lifeline crisis supporter did not help with my call of help as a depressed woman that has been feeling suicidal for the past few months.

Just absolute no help or guidance with my situation...

Last time I contacted them I was su*cidal. After explaining my trauma (undiagnosed ptsd it turns out) and what i wanted to do the man who answered the call arrogantly demanded to know "well what do you expect me to do about it?".
I have never again called them.

I rang to get advice about a relative not doing very well. The "councillor " I use the term loosely, wasnt helpful at all. Just repeated the same thing in different ways, and made it about me and how I'm doing. I don't need help for me, I need help so I know how to help my relative who isn't doing well ! Don't waste your time ringing life line . Nit very helpful at all

They literally just let me sit there waiting in a 9/10 crisis. I waited 17 minutes before they responded and it was some generic response about how their team cares about my well-being. What a load of absolute bs. The only thing that stopped me ending it all after that cherry on top 'conversation', was a stranger in the street on the way to do so.