Telephone nos for help 'unreachable'

WHILE chairman of Lifeline TT Lucy Gabriel yesterday comfirmed that the number of people calling Lifeline TT or other organisations which help suicidal people, has increased dramatically, none of the numbers posted on the Ministry of Health's website are reachable.

All calls to the Mental Health Unit at the North Central Regional Health Authority at 645-3232 ext 2542; Alive suicide hotline at 689-8525 and 650-5270; and the Mental Health Information Centre at 685-9126 ext 2577, 2571 and 2573, went to recordings.

Several calls to the Ministry of Health's manager of corporate communications Candice Alcantara went unanswered. After several attempts to contact Lifeline at 645-2800 yesterday, about complaints about erroneous "helpline" numbers on the ministry's website, Gabriel said she was aware of the situation.

Lifeline is a non-governmental organisation which has been in existence since 1975 and runs a helpline for people in crisis. Gabriel said while the organisations try to provide a 24/7 service, they are challenged by a lack of funding. “We have two toll-free numbers and currently we are trying to get Flow on board to have a third line."

She said Lifeline was very grateful to both Digicel and TSTT for giving it toll-free lines, adding that calls range from "less than a minute to seven hours.” She stressed the need for Lifeline and other such groups to be easily accessible.

"People are suicidal when they call us," she said. "They are serious. Once people call and the line is not toll-free, they hang up. The lack of funding also impacts on the number of volunteer listeners we have. So people being able to get through, we are getting more and more calls."

The new phone system she described might also deter callers. Gabriel said once a call is not answered it will be diverted to a recording telling callers to contact 220-3636. This number is also used for overnight calls.

"With this new system we have, if a listener is engaged the call cannot be interrupted and the person will have to call back. If there is a beeping sound, people normally end the call. When this happens, people say the number does not work."

Gabriel said her organisation is successful given the fact that it has no money. While it tries to provide a 24/7 service, it gets no funding from the government.

“Our rent is four months in arrears. We had one person working full time; now we cannot afford to pay. From this week we will not have that person any more. So it is only volunteers who do the necessary. There is not enough money to promote to have a continuous flow of volunteers...

"Yes, people will say the service is not working, but we do the best we can with what we have.”

When Newsday called several numbers on the Ministry of Health website, most of the numbers were active yesterday morning and received by a listener. However, when Newsday tried to call back after 4 pm, all calls went to a recording.