Helpline

Today I did my regular fortnightly helpline shift.  Every second Sunday from 10 - 2 I make sure I'm home and available to answer the phone.  Mums from all over Australia ring the helpline number for breastfeeding help.  I am one of approximately 900 counsellors in Australia, we take turns to take phone calls. I really enjoy it, it is great to be able to help people.

It was an interesting shift today, usually on a Sunday the phone rings hot for the first how and then slows down.  I usually have a call at 10am on the dot.  Today I hadn't had one by 10:15, so I rang the number to check that I really was on.  I had one call before 11 and then it sped up until 1 and then calmed down again.  I usually have about 12 calls on a shift, so todays 11 was pretty much normal.   Just interesting that they come in fits and starts.

I also do email counselling, where people enter their query onto our website and its gets sent to one of about 7 counsellors rostered on for a few days.  It is interesting the number of people who email that they couldn't get through on the phone and after some questioning I discover it is because they haven't read the information properly.  A lot of VOIP phones won't connect because there is an extra number on the end, so if you are having trouble getting through drop off the extra 6 and you should get through no problems.  This is written on all of the literature, yet many people don't notice it.  I hope the VOIP providers fix the glitch soon as we aren't the only organisation with an extra number :)