Answerphone shock and long wait for caller to Lifeline

A Taranaki woman who called the 24-hour Lifeline counselling service in distress has been shocked to find only a pre-recorded message at the other end.

The woman, who wanted to be known only as Ann, called the helpline as a last resort after her father threatened to kill himself on Tuesday night.

Though she rang back repeatedly, it was an hour and a half before a real person finally answered the line at 8.30pm.

Meanwhile, Ann had exhausted every other avenue – as even her advice from friends was to call Lifeline.

"I just didn't know what else to do. And when I got that response I was so shocked I think I actually laughed – it's supposed to be 24/7," Ann said.

The message told her all counsellors were busy and to call back later, she said.

There was no chance to leave a message for someone to call her back or an alternative number.

"I just couldn't believe it. I mean, I was pretty sure dad wouldn't follow through but I wasn't 100 per cent sure. So how must someone that's really on the edge feel when they get that response?"

When her call was answered, Ann said the counsellor was excellent, but that wasn't the point.

When spoken to yesterday, a Lifeline spokeswoman was surprised to hear it took 90 minutes to get through and was extremely concerned.

However development co-ordinator Belinda Wilkinson said, unfortunately, the service didn't receive any government funding and was only doing the best it could "on the smell of an oily rag".

Mrs Wilkinson was unsure what caused the delay but said it was most probably because there were too many calls for the number of counsellors available.

"We can have up to five or six operators on at one time, but sometimes there are less. All our counsellors are voluntary," she said.

Calls went to their local Lifeline centre, but if that line was busy they were then bounced to an available operator.

The month of January was a particularly busy time for the service with people going back to work and bills mounting up, Mrs Wilkinson said. All she could suggest for people in that situation was to keep trying, as the service didn't think it was appropriate to have an answerphone when people were potentially suicidal.

Ideally, the service would be getting a virtual call centre to help answer more calls, but it was going to cost $250,000 to set up.

She promised the delay would be investigated.

- © Fairfax NZ News