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lifeline are unhelpful
shannonxg_
Posts: 257 The Mix Regular
i just need a rant i guess. i’m tired of lifeline being so unhelpful. i genuinely feel like the tree in my neighbours garden could do SO much more for me.
today i phoned. i spent 11 mins on the call with them - just for reference that 11 mins includes the “hello and welcome to lifeline” blah blah blah stuff explaining about calls being recorded foe monitoring purposes etc then when you’re connected to someone they have to find you on the system and she then was asking my name and date of birth etc to find that and then as always they share their confidentiality policy, so altogether about 5 mins of the call was all that and the remaining 6 ish mins was ‘support’.
she said maybe i should reconsider college and think about leaving the course as i hate it there. i never had an opportunity to explain why i hate it there though. she said about how it appears im in a very low place and she’s concerned i dont care about anything in life n stuff. then she asked was i at risk of harm today and i said no. she then goes “okay im gonna let you go now bye” and that was it.
they are literally the most unhelpful people ever. i know obviously every service is gonna have people you gel with and people you don’t but lifeline have the most unhelpful people ever. the only time they’ve actually been helpful was one conversation i had with them in june with a person called laura. she actually gave me time and listened to me and was so supportive. i’ve never actually had a call that felt helpful other than that, everyone just wants to get the call ended asap, they genuinely give you a matter on minutes before ending the call every single time more or less.
being in northern ireland is frustrating in terms of help as mind, kooth, mental health matters etc etc do NOT cover northern ireland. it then frustrates me more when samaritans especially start signposting me to organisations in ireland and they don’t have any understanding of how im in northern ireland which is apart of the uk and ireland is a separate country - i know it can be confusing as there are people in northern ireland who identify as irish and people who identify as british, some see it as ireland others see it as northern ireland and apart of the uk (it does say the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland on a british passport though so i feel like it should be easier to realise i guess when it comes to signposting to accessible services?) - everyone is 100% entitled to their own view and can chose how they want to identify, i don’t have an issue with that at all but when it comes to services, it doesn’t matter if i see myself as irish or british as i am not in ireland technically speaking therefore unable to access irish services but cannot access many uk services as they exclude northern ireland.
i’m sorry for the long ranty message but it’s frustrating that northern ireland’s so called crisis service can’t even put up with you for more than 5 mins basically before hanging up:(
today i phoned. i spent 11 mins on the call with them - just for reference that 11 mins includes the “hello and welcome to lifeline” blah blah blah stuff explaining about calls being recorded foe monitoring purposes etc then when you’re connected to someone they have to find you on the system and she then was asking my name and date of birth etc to find that and then as always they share their confidentiality policy, so altogether about 5 mins of the call was all that and the remaining 6 ish mins was ‘support’.
she said maybe i should reconsider college and think about leaving the course as i hate it there. i never had an opportunity to explain why i hate it there though. she said about how it appears im in a very low place and she’s concerned i dont care about anything in life n stuff. then she asked was i at risk of harm today and i said no. she then goes “okay im gonna let you go now bye” and that was it.
they are literally the most unhelpful people ever. i know obviously every service is gonna have people you gel with and people you don’t but lifeline have the most unhelpful people ever. the only time they’ve actually been helpful was one conversation i had with them in june with a person called laura. she actually gave me time and listened to me and was so supportive. i’ve never actually had a call that felt helpful other than that, everyone just wants to get the call ended asap, they genuinely give you a matter on minutes before ending the call every single time more or less.
being in northern ireland is frustrating in terms of help as mind, kooth, mental health matters etc etc do NOT cover northern ireland. it then frustrates me more when samaritans especially start signposting me to organisations in ireland and they don’t have any understanding of how im in northern ireland which is apart of the uk and ireland is a separate country - i know it can be confusing as there are people in northern ireland who identify as irish and people who identify as british, some see it as ireland others see it as northern ireland and apart of the uk (it does say the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland on a british passport though so i feel like it should be easier to realise i guess when it comes to signposting to accessible services?) - everyone is 100% entitled to their own view and can chose how they want to identify, i don’t have an issue with that at all but when it comes to services, it doesn’t matter if i see myself as irish or british as i am not in ireland technically speaking therefore unable to access irish services but cannot access many uk services as they exclude northern ireland.
i’m sorry for the long ranty message but it’s frustrating that northern ireland’s so called crisis service can’t even put up with you for more than 5 mins basically before hanging up:(
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Comments
I know how confusing NI / Ireland and United Kingdom is for people who aren’t actually living in it to know the history behind it all but religious and political views aside, You’re in UK so all of those services which cover UK should cover you too. It’s ridiculous that NI is left forgotten in the middle and gets overlooked.
What about Irish services? Would they let you reach out to them? I know it’s very limited anyway and there’s not much support here but it’s worth trying if there is a crisis line?
Either way, you deserve support and I’m sorry that you’re not getting it😞
thank you lucy🩷this is the issue as i’m in northern ireland therefore falls under the uk however many uk services exclude us and technically we can’t access irish services as it’s not ireland either, it’s super frustrating:(
honestly faolan it’s so frustrating when it comes to uk services excluding us but technically not able to access irish services either as it’s not ireland!!! lifeline are literally so unhelpful just and it kinda annoys me more when i phone them and they give like 4 mins then be like see yaaaaa🤦🏽♀️
thank you for your reply though i appreciate it lots!
I hear you though. There’s little to no support in Ireland anyway that’s why I use the mix🤣
Lifeline sounds brutal. Have you emailed them to complain? Like hanging up after 4 minutes is hardly a life line lol