Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Lifeline Australia will get a multimillion-dollar funding boost in next week’s budget to help the service in curbing “the threat of suicide”.
More than $52 million in funding over four years will be provided to help the crisis support service keep up with growing demand with the PM noting some 3,000 Australians a year took their own lives.
“Each year, some 65,000 Australians attempt suicide… just let that figure sink in,” he said at Lifeline’s headquarters in Sydney on Saturday.
“These statistics, you can write on a page but they’re the lived experience of so many families and communities all around this country.
Mr Morrison said Lifeline received over 1.2 million calls in the last year and the volume of calls seeking mental health help had increased by over 22 per cent from 2019 to 2021.
He said the funding will allow Lifeline to answer an extra 176,000 calls or texts from Australians in the next year – just under 4,000 every day.Â
“There is no part of this country that is not touched by mental health issues, no part of the country which is not tapped by the threat of suicide,” the prime minister said.
The service will use the funding to improve responsiveness and invest in crisis response innovation, surge capacity and models of care.
Mr Morrison explained suicide rates had fallen in recent years even after the onslaught of natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What happened during the pandemic was that despite this greater need, we did not see the level of suicide in the country rise,” he told reporters.
“We actually saw it fall at a national level, at a macro level.
Lifeline ambassador and former NSW Liberal leader John Brogden said the volume of calls has swelled to over 3,000 a day and have been “greater in distress”.
The funding injection comes after the government on Thursday announced $260 million in the budget will go towards mental health support for young people.
AAP
Get all the latest Canberra news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.
