This year, we have experienced unprecedented demand for our Support Service and expect this trend will continue.
A lot has happened already this year. The devastating bushfires and the recent outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to heightened feelings of uncertainty and concern for many of us.
As you can imagine, during these challenging times, the need for Beyond Blue’s services has never been greater.
But the COVID-19 movement restrictions mean we are also facing an enormous shock to our fundraising activities.
Most of the income that funds our vital Support Service comes through community events. Fun runs, sponsored cycles, quiz nights, bake sales, coffee mornings and street galas. As we’ve come together as a nation to protect everyone’s health and safety, all of these have been impossible under lockdown.
These kind of events account for 57 per cent of our fundraising income!
This 24/7 Support Service appeal will help us bridge that gap. We must be there to answer every call.
Someone who knows just how important it is to have someone to talk to on the other end of a phone, is Rick Foster, a 56 year-old financial advisor, who had to take eight months off work while he was recovering from both anxiety and depression.
Even though Rick went through his crisis well before the COVID-19 outbreak, he knows exactly what it’s like to feel overwhelmed by despair.
When Rick first spoke to Beyond Blue, he was in such a bad way that, to this day, he cannot really remember the conversation he had with one of our mental health professionals. All he knows is that in his moment of crisis, someone was there for him. Someone who cared. A professional who understood and knew how to help him.
Someone who made sure he was safe and then stayed with him to calm his fears.
“So much of that day is a blank, I was in a bit of a tailspin. I was on my own, my wife had gone to work and I felt like I’d just lost my life-line. I went to see my mum, and as soon as I was in the house, my old family home, it was like, bam. I just lost it. Deep crying and sobbing I just couldn’t control. Mum called Beyond Blue and just handed me the phone.”
What would have happened if Rick’s mum had called and no one had answered?
What if we’d been too busy, too stretched, to answer his call?
You know, I don’t even want to begin thinking about how to answer that question. All I know is that we can never let it happen. Not even in the face of the worrying funding shortfall we’re looking at right now. Not even once. Not ever.
Because Beyond Blue’s entire Support Service strategy is built around maintaining the capacity it takes to always be there. No matter what. So that when someone like Rick does call, he will be answered.
That’s why I say that your donation today will answer every call.