24 Hour Crisis and Support Line
The 24 hour crisis/support line provides support to women through information, referrals and education; it is also the pathway into our client services. A comprehensive assessment of the client's suitability and safety requirement is undertaken by a trained volunteer who then makes an appropriate referral onto our services.For this work we engage volunteers who are comprehensively trained in a three stage course over a period of 4 - 6 months. We use an answering service to ensure that volunteers work safely from their homes 24 hours.
What can you expect?
- That your call will be answered and responded to in a timely manner
- That you can get information about all of our services
- That your safety is discussed and that your options are explored
Frequently asked questions
We use an answering service because we have a wide range of volunteers who work from home, to ensure their safety and privacy we go through an answer service. Occasionally a man will answer but he is employed by the answering services.
There are times when it may not be appropriate for some people to come into our safe house, they may be using drugs and/or alcohol or have an unmanaged mental health issue this may mean that the house becomes unsafe for them and other people. Also, there are times when women who have been in the safe house previously have breached confidentiality or broken some of our guidelines most of the time we have this conversation with the client but occasionally we don't get the opportunity before they leave.
When the person on the crisis line is busy doing a pick up we will sometimes put the answering services on hold, we will however return your call as soon as possible.
We are a self referral agency this means that we will need to speak to the woman herself about her situation; you can still support your client/friend or family member by making a safe place and a phone available to them so she can ring us.