La Trobe Financial partners with Lifeline to save lives

Over the last 12 months, Lifeline has answered an extraordinary 700,000 calls from Australians in crisis and at risk of suicide, however over 160,000 who were calling for help were placed on hold and chose to hang up because they could not be reached in time.

Today more people will die from suicide than road accidents. It is the largest single cause of death for Australian men under 45 and women under 35.

La Trobe Financial has been the major sponsor for the Melbourne Lifeline business luncheon over the past two years. The most recent held in Melbourne on 24 July 2014 at the Soffitel Hotel had former Prime Minister of Australia the Honourable Julia Gillard as guest speaker with over 300 attendees.

John Brogden, Chairman of Lifeline, shared his personal experience of wanting to commit suicide seven years ago. Today, he is grateful that he did not cross that road. That he was lucky to have achieved help and one of his goals is to help others that also hit that “dark place”.

John stated that “Lifeline is answering more calls every year, but the calls keep growing. We want to answer every call and help save more lives.”

Lifeline has been supported by over 11,000 volunteers and the overnight shifts are becoming a challenge. Deaths by suicide have sadly reached a ten year peak of 2,535.

One in four people will suffer from an anxiety issue. Consider, one in four in your workplace. How does this affect the economy, work productivity and personal lifestyle? Mental health in the workplace costs $5 billion a year with people not being able to work, or not being able to concentrate at work. People need to become more resilient with coping with different levels of stress, anxiety and implementing this training at an early age, say from primary school level is required. We need to talk more about mental illness. That is why Lifeline’s 24 hour/seven days a week telephone crisis support service is very important and continues to save lives.

Brian Ford, La Trobe Financial’s Chief Operating Officer in introducing Ms Gillard stated “One thing that we all can do is recognise that we can all help someone with a mental illness. It is important to work together in our businesses and private lives to help our fellow workers or friends through difficult times and become more resilient.”

La Trobe Financial has a long history of helping Australians achieve financial independence and of giving back to the community. La Trobe Financial operates a Community Program through our La Trobe Foundation inviting all 133 staff to volunteer up to two days a year (fully paid by La Trobe Financial) to work in the broader community to impact positively those around us. Many La Trobe Financial staff choose to work for Lifeline as volunteers and we are very proud we are contributing to our community in this way.

Visit http://www.latrobefinancial.com.au for more information.

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