Lifeline and Beyond Blue are linking up under a new partnership to make it easier and more efficient for people to find the support that best suits them.
Community demand for mental health and crisis support rises and resources become increasingly tight, Lifeline and Beyond Blue have designed their new strategic directions to be complementary.
Lifeline will continue to focus on supporting people in crisis and Beyond Blue will continue to focus on prevention and earlier intervention, supporting people at the first sign of struggle.
Together, the organisations support millions of people a year with information, advice, online self-help and referrals via telephone, text, webchat and digital platforms.
Beyond Blue Chair The Hon Julia Gillard AC said: “Australia’s mental health and suicide prevention systems are too often crisis-driven. People often only get support when they’re at breaking point. So Beyond Blue will continue its focus on supporting people early on – helping people to feel better sooner, to get well and to stay well.”
Lifeline Chair Jacinta Munro said: “Lifeline will continue to focus on crisis support and suicide prevention, supporting Australians in times of crisis and equipping individuals and communities to be suicide safe.”
“This partnership between Lifeline and Beyond Blue helps to deliver a more integrated system, with more clarity for help seekers, smoother transitions between services and a greater focus on holistic support.”
Earlier this year, the organisations formalised a three-year collaboration agreement that will build on their long record of working together in operations and advocacy. This year, the Victorian Government engaged Lifeline and Beyond Blue to lead the first stage of a sectorwide co-design to deliver on a Victorian Royal Commission recommendation to create better referral pathways across the state’s helplines.
Beyond Blue and Lifeline worked closely during the Black Saturday bushfires and the height of the pandemic, including by linking young people to Lifeline’s crisis text service from the Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service delivered by Beyond Blue.
Now official, the partnership means Lifeline and Beyond Blue will be better placed to share resources and connect people with the information, advice and support that suits them best, regardless of where their journey begins.
In the past four years alone, more than 400,000 people have used the app with more than 150,000 safety plans made.