Phone Connections Test

Phone 02 9114 8150 (Sydney Callers)

1300 135 846 (Intra & Interstate Callers)

Phone Connections is the national telephone peer support line for people living with mental illness (consumers) and is based upon the Warm Lines in the USA and New Zealand. Want support and be able to connect and chat about your day? This is what Phone Connections is for - mental health consumers providing peer support to other mental health consumers.

Phone Connections currently operates at present 4 evenings per week:

Friday and Saturday evenings from 6pm - 12 Midnight
Monday and Thursday evenings from 7pm - 11 pm

What Phone Connections IS:

Either you can ring in to receive support or the Phone Connections staff will ring you to provide support.
Receive a touch base phone call and have a chat about your day or week.
You can receive a call every evening Phone Connections Operate if you so wish.
You can decide what evening/s and within a 1 hour time frame - what time you wish to receive your phone call from the Phone Connections staff.
You can use whatever name you prefer when talking to the Phone Connections staff - this is entirely up to you. If you prefer not to give your real name and prefer to give a name you feel more comfortable with - then go with it.
If you prefer to receive a phone call then you will need to give the staff a Landline phone number (we do not call mobile numbers) and a preferred name - so they can contact you on the evening/s you designate.
Due to our funding requirements the staff will ask you a small number of questions which are then de-identified and included in a quarterly evaluations report. Questions like what suburb and state you live in, your age range, and if you have come to Australia from another country.
The staff will ask you if you would like to participate at some stage in the future in giving feedback about the service and support you have received (which will be de-identified). If you're happy to do this, this will be recorded. Again it is entirely up to you. If you prefer not to do this then this is okay too.
Phone Connections is an opportunity for you to socially connect (via phone) with another mental health consumer who also lives with mental illness and for your both to share your personal stories, triumphs and challenges.
If you are busy when the Phone Connections staff contact you or you don't wish to receive any further calls - please "politely" inform the staff. The Phone Connections staff will respect your wishes. Afterall, it is entirely up to you whether you receive the support or not. Please treat the staff with the dignity and respect that you yourself wish to be treated with. Afterall, they also are human beings and they are only doing their job.

What Phone Connections IS NOT:

Phone Connections is not a "crisis" service. If you are experiencing a crisis please contact your local mental health crisis centre/team, your mental health clinician or doctor, or Life Line or Salvo Care Line.
Phone Connections is not a "counselling" or "advice" giving service. If you wish to receive counselling support please either organise or contact your qualified counsellor. The Phone Connections staff are not qualified counsellors and giving advice has been proven by many people not the best way for people to come to their own decisions for their lifestyles of choice. Phone Connections staff are only too happy to discuss with you whatever you wish to talk about and let you come to our own conclusions and decisions. They may also share with you their own experiences of living life and living with a mental illness.
Phone Connections is not an avenue for you to discuss pornographic or sexually explicit information. Please retain such discussions with yourself.
Phone Connections is not an avenue for you to get angry and abuse the staff. Whilst it is understandable that you may at times feel angry with what is happening in your life, the staff are not your punching bag. Please obtain a pillow and punch the hell out of it rather than placing so much anger on another human being.