After more than 50 years of community service, Crisis Support Services Inc. (CSS) is proud to be Australia's leading professional counselling and training provider.
Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, CSS is internationally accredited in counselling and suicide prevention, with strong and proud history of helping people in crisis.
CSS manages several specialist services including MensLine Australia, SuicideLine (Vic), the national Suicide Call Back Service and the beyondblue info line.
CSS was established in April, 1960 as Personal Emergency Services, by the late and esteemed Professor Cunningham Dax.
Personal Emergency Services (PES) provided Melbournians with a one-of-a-kind service called Crisis Line, a generalist telephone counselling service, operated by a small team of skilled volunteers.
Over the years PES continued to grow steadily and in 1990 it boasted a team of more than 260 skilled volunteers and four paid staff to manage the service. This team provided the Crisis Line service via just three phones, answering 15,000 calls for help each year.
In 1997, PES embarked on a period major growth and development. Thanks to the generous support of the Victorian philanthropic community, funds were secured to establish a free call 1-3 number (13 61 69), expanding the reach of the telephone counselling service to all areas of Victoria, for the cost of a local call. Crisis Line was rebranded and called CARE-RING, in a bid to encourage the community to seek support from the service before they reach crisis point. So too, the counselling team began to focus their counselling on crisis prevention strategies, as well as management.
At this time the call centre was expanded and updated with new technologies. CARE RING was to be provided from a counselling centre of 10 phones, and for the first time, it was supported by internationally acclaimed call centre technologies.
In 1998 PES won the Victorian government’s tender to provide The Victorian Suicide Help Line (now SuicideLine VIC). For the first time, PES established a team of paid professional counsellors, social workers and psychologist to provide the Victorian community with this unique and potentially life-saving service, under the banner of CARE RING.
By 1999, PES has grown significantly. It employed 14 fulltime staff and more than 200 volunteers, as providing skilled telephone counselling to more than 50,000 Victorians in need – an increase on 63 per cent on the previous year.
By 2000, CARE RING was answering 63,000 calls for support, while the strategic growth and repositioning of PES continued. PES was successful in securing the tender to operate a national telephone counselling and support service for men experiencing family and relationship concerns.
On September 26, 2001, MensLine Australia was born – a free, 24 hour nation-wide telephone counselling service, specifically tailored to support men with family and relationship troubles. It was to be an international first. The Victorian Suicide Help Line had also been established as a service in its own right.
To support this growth, PES continued to increase its professional staff numbers and improved its telephony and technology to support its 24/7 service delivery model. PES was the first telephone counselling organisation to have its professional training programs accredited by the State Training Board (1996), further supporting the need for professionally trained staff to service PES’ counselling lines.
By 2002, the community need for a uniquely professional telephone counselling service was clear. PES underwent immense change as it moved away from being a volunteer based organisation to an exclusively professional service. Considering this significant change, the organisation was renamed and repositioned, and is now known as Crisis Support Services (CSS).
This repositioning fuelled further strategic growth in leaps and bounds. Over the next few years, CSS won a number of government tenders to provide professionally staffed and specialised telephone counselling services, such as the Parent Support Service and Being Connected, funded by the Child Support Agency (up until 2008). These professional telephone counselling services for separated and disadvantaged parents were the perfect fit for CSS’ new professional service delivery model.
Crisis Support Services has continued to grow and evolve. Today, CSS is the proud provider of seven unique, professional counselling services, employing more than 140 paid professional staff, who answer more than 90,000 calls each year. Our services are provided from two state-of-the-art, national telephone counselling centres, which house more than 40 workstations, backed by the latest in telephony and technology.
CSS is the proud provider of:
MensLine Australia : 1300 78 99 78 - A national 27/7 telephone support service for men with family and relationship concerns, offering professional counselling and information, for the cost of a local call. Funded by the Australian Government Department of Families and Community Service, Housing and Indigenous Affairs.
SuicideLine VIC (previously The Victorian Suicide Help Line) : 1300 651 251 – A free, 24 hour, professional 24 hours telephone counselling service for Victorians at risk of suicide, their carers and those bereaved by suicide. Funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services.
The Suicide Call Back Service : 1300 659 467 – A free, nation-wide telephone support service offering up to six specialised counselling session to those at risk of suicide, their carers and people bereaved by suicide. Funded by the Australia Government Department of Health and Ageing.
The beyondblue info line : 1300 22 4696 – A national, professionally staffed information and referral service for people concerned about depression and anxiety. Funded by beyondblue – the national depression initiative.
Veteran’s Line : 1800 011 046 – A national after-hours crisis counselling service for Australian veterans and their families. Funded by The Australian Government Department of Veteran’s Affairs.
LIFE Communications – A key component of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy. The LIFE communications project aims to improve access to suicide and self harm activities across Australia through the promotion of the LIFE framework and its professional development resources. Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
A number of industry specific care lines, including the Australia Post – MensLine Australia, The Open University Care Line, The ATAPS After Hours Support Service and the Australia Defence Force’s All Hours Support Line.