The accessibility/remoteness index of Australia (ARIA) and lifeline Australia's calls
- Authors: Watson, Robert , McDonald, John , Pearce, Dora
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 8th National Rural Health Conference, Alice Springs : 10th - 13th March, 2005
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- Description: Nationally there are more than 50 member centres and sub-centres of Lifeline Australia’s telephone counselling and referral service, providing an equitable, free, anonymous, and highly accessible primary health resource. The accessibility of this service may mean that it has a particularly important role to play in contributing to the health and well-being of rural and remote Australians. The trained volunteer counsellors of the service receive more than 400 000 calls annually. Information on many of these calls is recorded by telephone counsellors in Lifeline’s Client Service Management Information System (CSMIS). The purpose of this study was to establish if a relationship between the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) and calls to Lifeline Australia could be found. Population standardised areal call rates to Lifeline Ballarat were compiled using Telstra exchange service area to test the hypothesis that a positive relationship between the call rates to the service and the ARIA would be found. 90 128 CSMIS cases from 2003 were examined to explore if any linear relationship between caller characteristics and a centre’s ARIA score were apparent. A number of significant associations with the ARIA scores and CSMIS call variables were observed. However, the hypothesis that a positive relationship between call rates to the service and the ARIA would be found was not supported. An important implication of this exploratory study is that Lifeline’s telephone counselling and referral service may need to be promoted more widely to rural clients and health care providers.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003001236
Areal call rates to a rural Lifeline centre
- Authors: Watson, Robert , McDonald, John , Pearce, Dora
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at TASA '04 Refereed Conference Proceedings: Revisioning institutions: Change in the 21st century, Beechworth, Victoria : 8th November, 2004
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- Description: This study investigated the relationship between areal call rates to Lifeline Ballarat’s telephone counselling service and the Socio-economic Indexes for Australia. Successful calls for the period of January, February, March, and April 2002 (N=3767) were geospatially referenced to small areas. It was hypothesised that call rates would increase with greater socio-economic disadvantage as measured by the Socio-economic Indexes for Australia. Population adjusted call rates in each exchange service area in the study region were produced and their relationship with the corresponding Socio-economic Indexes for Australia scores were investigated. Significant correlations were observed for the call rate indicator, named the Lifeline Indicator of Social Need, and the Socio-economic Indexes for Australia advantage/disadvantage, disadvantage, and education/occupation indices. The results support Johnston’s (1979) finding of a relationship between socio-economic status of an area and local utilization of telephone counselling. The results support the idea that social factors such as the socio-economic climate of the area can have a significant association with seeking support from telephone counselling services such as the Lifeline service. An implication of the study may be that the calls to telephone counselling and referral centres could be used as a functional social indicator of the expressed need for psychosocial support or as a contributor to other social indices.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000971
A rural perspective of telephone counselling and referral
- Authors: Watson, Robert , McDonald, John
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Primary Health Vol. 10, no. 2 (2004), p. 97-103
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- Description: A telephone survey was used to examine rural residents' (n=102) perceptions and knowledge of a well-established national telephone counselling and referral service-Lifeline. Residents in rural Australia experience generally poorer access and availability to health-related services than their metropolitan counterparts. They may also have problems with confidentiality and stigmatisation in using what services are available in their area. Although this was a non-comparative study, it was reasoned that these barriers to help-seeking in rural areas would mean their population would know and value a service such as Lifeline, which provides equitable and anonymous support and referrals to all Australians. The results showed that the service was known, valued, and supported strongly by the respondents. The findings supported the belief that telephone counselling and referral has an important and unique place in rural health support and referral.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000949
Community expectations and anticipated outcomes for crisis support services—Lifeline Australia
- Authors: Ma, Jennifer , Batterham, Philip , Kõlves, Kairi , Woodward, Alan , Bradford, Sally , Klein, Britt , Titov, Nickolai , Mazzer, Kelly , O’Riordan, Megan , Rickwood, Debra
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Health and Social Care in the Community Vol. 30, no. 5 (2022), p. 1775-1788
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Crisis lines provide a critical first line of mental wellbeing support for community members in distress. Given the increasing referral to such services, there is a need to understand what the expectations of the community are around the role of such services in our public health responses. A computer assisted telephone interview was undertaken between 28th October and 30th November 2019. The aim was to explore expectations and anticipated outcomes of Lifeline Australia's crisis support services from a nationally representative community sample (N = 1,300). Analysis was undertaken to determine if demographic variables (age, gender, indigenous status, country of birth, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) status, sexual orientation, household composition, region and State/territory) and past service use affected community expectations. Results showed that a majority of respondents expected Lifeline to listen and provide support, recommend other services, and provide information. Help-seekers were expected to feel heard and listened to, receive safety advice or support to stay safe, and feel more hopeful. Lifeline was expected to prioritise people feeling suicidal, in immediate personal crisis, and experiencing domestic violence. Findings reveal that community members hold expectations for Lifeline Australia to serve as a suicide prevention and general crisis support service, which are congruent with the service's aims. There was little variation in community expectations of crisis support services based on demographic factors and past service use. The results show that the community has extensive and diverse expectations for this national crisis service to meet both short and longer-term needs for all vulnerable members of the community—entailing a very substantial public health service responsibility. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.