This case study demonstrates how Lifeline Australia brought the beneficiary voice and experience into developing a text-based, crisis support service.

Lifeline offers perhaps the most well-known and trusted helpline in Australia’s crisis support and suicide prevention system. Last year alone almost one million Australians used Lifeline’s services when they found themselves in crisis, considering suicide or struggling with mental health challenges.

This article shares how Lifeline is adapting to changes in behaviour and advances in technology to better meet the persistent issue of suicide in Australia.

It explores Lifeline’s journey towards digital transformation and in particular, the development and testing of a text-based, crisis support service with the support of SVA and Today Strategic Design.

Lifeline’s primary motivations for developing the service were to increase reach, improve outcomes for service users (known as help seekers) and boost efficiency.

The article outlines how Lifeline Australia has taken three important steps in this journey:

• building a team for change
• listening to and learning from help seekers and crisis supporters
• planning for and building a new service and business model.

Through this, Lifeline has learned some critical lessons about the importance of deeply understanding service users to unlock the full possibilities offered by digital technology.