The crisis path
If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, you do not have to wait for anyone in the app, and you do not have to read this page first. Help that answers right now comes before everything else.
Call 000 if you are in immediate danger. You can also reach Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, any time, day or night. These are real people who answer 24/7. You do not need the right words to call.
What the app does
As you type a help message, First Six watches for signs that you are unsafe. If it sees them, it surfaces immediate-support options straight away, right there on the screen, before you have even sent anything. The point is that the help you need does not depend on you finishing a message or knowing where to look.
That check is deliberately not the only line of defence. The same check runs again on our side after you send, so a message that reads as urgent is treated as urgent even if your device or the moment got in the way of the first pass. No automated check catches every way distress can be worded, which is why the immediate-support contacts are always one tap away and a real person reads what you send.
Your request still goes to the team, flagged so they treat it as urgent. After you send it, you will see a short note: your request is on its way, and while you wait, here are people you can reach right now.
So two things happen at once, and neither waits on the other:
- You get immediate options you can act on this minute.
- The team at your institution is alerted so someone can follow up. If an alert cannot get out, the app tells you, and your request still sits in the team's inbox.
A crisis line answers now. A staff member knows your situation and can help with what comes next, at your university specifically. You are not choosing between them. The crisis path gives you both, because in a hard moment the right answer is usually all the help, not the tidiest single channel.
What you can do right now
- If you are in immediate danger, call 000
This is for an emergency happening now. You do not have to explain it perfectly. Tell them where you are and that you need help.
- If you need to talk to someone now, call Lifeline on 13 11 14
It is free, confidential, and open 24/7. Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 is there too. You can call just to talk; nothing has to have escalated for it to count.
- If you can, tell someone near you
A friend, a flatmate, anyone you trust. You do not have to carry this alone, and saying it out loud to one person often takes the edge off the next ten minutes.
After the moment passes
When things are a little steadier, your request will still be there, and a staff member will reach out to check in. You do not have to be at your worst for that follow-up to be worth having. It is also fine if, by the time they reach you, the immediate wave has passed. That is common, and it is still the right thing to have done.
You can reply in your own time under Help → your requests, where the conversation stays in one place.
There is no wrong way to use this. Reaching out, in any words, at any hour, is the right move.
Common questions
Will calling 000 or Lifeline tell my university?
No. Those are independent crisis services you reach directly, and a phone call to them is not reported back through First Six. The only thing your university sees is a help request you chose to send.
What if I'm not sure it counts as a crisis?
Reach out anyway. You do not need to clear a bar. Lifeline and Beyond Blue are there for the in-between days too, not only the worst ones, and it is always better to make the call you did not strictly need than to skip the one you did.
Related
The fastest answer is usually one question away.