Western Australian telephone counselling service Lifeline has turned 10.
While the Living Stone Foundation, now trading as Lifeline WA, provided services to the WA community since the early 1980s the organisation was accredited by Lifeline Australia as a telephone counselling centre in 1994.
Since then Lifeline WA’s telephone counselling service has grown to include 250 comprehensively trained and supervised volunteers who answer nearly 20,000 calls a year.
In June 2003 Lifeline WA Pilbara was established in Karratha to help increase service capacity.
Lifeline WA CEO Tim Hawkins said the State lost 24 people to suicide in 2002.
"We know Lifeline played an important role in helping save many more lives," he said.
The value of Lifeline WA’s telephone counselling service is estimated to be worth $100 an hour.
With an average of three telephone counsellors available at any given time, the service provides counselling worth more than $7,000 a day or $2 million a year.
