'Be kind': Lifeline South Coast CEO

Ten years ago, Renee Green was looking to put her skills in governance and finance to good use. She searched for a job with a positive impact on the community, and found it in Lifeline South Coast.

Lifeline receives a call every 30 seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For Renee, “It’s really hard not to be passionate about it. Working with that team of volunteers is just incredible.”

Last July, Lifeline South Coast had a 25 percent increase in calls. What caused that?

We saw an increase in our calls that started in 2020 as a result of the ‘Black Summer’ bush fires. We saw another increase on top of that around March when Covid came into the community … since that time, our calls have continued to rise.

This increase is due to the impacts of Covid, which absolutely affected people in their mental health and wellbeing, but also due to an increased focus around mental health, which is great. I think people really took that message on board.

We are happy to take that on, but … it is going to continue to impact people for some time. So we are looking to stay at those higher levels and make sure we’ve got enough volunteers on the phones to deal with that for the next couple of years.

Can you tell us more about the link between exercise and mental health?

We know that exercise, looking after your physical health, is one of the real protective factors from suicide. It doesn’t have to be going for a 10K run. For some people, that’s great. For people like me, I’m quite happy with a leisurely stroll around the harbour. Just taking that time… has a positive impact on your mental health. It helps boost that resilience. It can be as simple as a walk.

What kind of things do people talk about on the phone lines?

People talk about everything. From struggles with their relationships, perhaps they’re going through a divorce. Or perhaps it’s something that happened in the past with their parents or their children. It could be around domestic and family violence. It could be around financial pressures. We know financial pressures have a huge impact.

You believe kindness and compassion are important. Could you tell us more?

We get a lot of anecdotal stories, very small acts of kindness, that have an incredible impact.

The person who has shown that kindness and compassion often never knows the impact they had, but for the person receiving it, that has made an incredible difference.

It can be done in a range of ways. It might even just be saying hello to your neighbour, or giving somebody a friendly smile. If you’re comfortable having a conversation or if you know someone a bit better, perhaps sitting down and having that conversation and just giving them your undivided attention for a little while. You don’t need to solve their problems. Sometimes it’s just listening.

Even for strangers, just the simplest things, like letting someone in front of you in the line at the supermarket, because they don’t have many things.

Do you have an example of an act of kindness?

There was somebody who was not doing well. She sat in a park, really quite upset. She said so many people walked past and just pretended not to see her. Then one person walked past and gave her the smallest smile and said: “I hope your day gets better.” That was enough for her to kind of take a deep breath and go: “Okay, I can move past this.”

Is there a specific resolution that could be helpful for our mental health?

Look after yourself. Just take some time out, whether it’s each day or each week to do something for yourself.

Renee puts this advice into practice in her own life – in her spare time, she enjoys spending time on her property with her dogs and 11 sheep!

For 24-hour telephone crisis support, call Lifeline on 131 114. Bushfire Recovery line 13 help or 134 357. If life is in danger, call 000. Visit Lifelinesouthcoast.org.au