Lifeline Crisis Supporter Training

Hi All!

     My name is Alex Zotov and I am seeking your help to become a volunteer for LifeLine. Lifeline is a non-profit organisation which provides free, 24-hour Telephone Crisis Support service in Australia. Volunteer Crisis Supporters provide suicide prevention services, mental health support, and emotional assistance, not only via telephone but face-to-face and online.

     I’ve lost two of my friends to suicide and unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to provide professional support at the time when they needed it the most. The fact is, their decision to take their own lives was a huge shock to their family and all of their friends because no one even suspected what they had on their minds. It’s only after the fact, you realise that there were some signs which someone could have picked up on.

     You can not change your past, however, you can learn from it, which is why I’ve gone ahead and did the ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) workshop, run by Livingworks in collaboration with LifeLine. The ASIST workship is practical training on recognising suicidal behavior and supporting people via a well structured framework called PAL (Pathway for Assisting Life). Check out my short video at the top of the page to get more understanding of what it is.

     The ASIST workshop is just one of 8 modules, which I need to take in order to become a volunteer for LifeLine. The complete CSWT (Crisis Support Workplace Training) course runs for 12 months and includes theoretical knowledge and practical skills to be somewhat confident in providing professional support to people who are seeing help during the darkest moments of their lives (obviously you can never be 100% ready for it as every person is different). To get more detailed information about the course, please follow the link below:

https://www.wesleymission.org.au/find-a-service/mental-health-and-hospitals/counselling/lifeline-sydney-and-sutherland/become-a-lifeline-volunteer/lifeline-training/

     The fee to undertake CSWT course at LifeLine Syndey CBD office is $1150 and the payment is required before the Module 1 starts, which is 31st of August 2019.

     I would really appreciate your financial support to help me become a LifeLine volunteer so that I could start supporting people with suicidal thoughts and helping them to recognise other options they could take to battle with their depressions.

     Some relevant data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics:

Every year!

– Over 65,000 Australians make a suicide attempt- More than 3,000 Australians died by suicide in 2017

– Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians between 15 and 44 years of age

– Young Australians are more likely to take their own life than die in motor vehicle accidents

– In 2017, about 75% of people who died by suicide were males and 25% were females

– In 2017, the suicide rate among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was approximately twice that of non-Indigenous Australians

     If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message either via:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alex.zotov.life

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-zotov-sydney/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alex.zotov.life

     I will be updating my Instagram and Facebook accounts to show my progress on the way to becoming a LifeLine volunteer and I’m always happy to chat online. Your support will give me the accountability to keep studying the course and applying my skills further during the volunteering stage, so I would appreciate if you connect with me either via Instagram or Facebook and check up on me every once in a while. I hope my updates inspire you to either become a volunteer for LifeLine or at least to participate in the ASIST workshop and become more aware of the suicide prevention techniques and basic framework to support a person in need.

Thank you & hope to chat soon!

Alex Zotov