Support for our community following the Greta bus tragedy
As our tight-knit community continues to band together to offer ongoing support to everyone affected by the horrific and heartbreaking Greta bus tragedy, our thoughts and prayers are with all those who lost their lives, those injured, their families and friends, our emergency services and support personnel, and our wider community.
In difficult times like these, we understand that our local businesses are often at the front line, whether personally affected or to offer support to employees, customers, and community members.
There are a number of free, inclusive, mental health services as well as other support and tools to help you and these are outlined below.
As always Singleton Council and Business Singleton are working in partnership to support our businesses and we are here to help. Please reach out to:
recovery@singleton.nsw.gov.au at Singleton Council or
admin@businesssingleton.nsw.gov.au at Business Singleton
or call Kelsie McKenzie or Laura Kelly on 0400 460 412.
You can also contact Karen Varker or Jelinda Millgate at Singleton Council by email at business@singleton.nsw.gov.au or by phone on 02 6578 7290.
How to support our community members
To help organisations and businesses support our community, Council has put together a business card with details of how to support our community and where to find help.
These business cards will be available in the coming days and distributed to local businesses.
This includes the following help and support lines:
Lifeline (24/7)
13 11 14
W lifeline.org.au
Beyond Blue (24/7)
1300 224 636
W beyondblue.org.au
Kids Helpline (24/7)
1800 55 1800
W kidshelpline.com.au
13 YARN (24/7)
13 92 76
W 13yarn.org.au
Mental Health Line (24/7)
1800 011 511
You can find more services at Council’s Mental Health Navigation Tool here.
Hunter New England Mental Health have a number of supports and resources that can be found at their website at this link.
Lifeline Support Services
Lifeline Hunter provides no cost face-to-face counselling, telehealth, video counselling, web counselling, text counselling and also a 24/7 crisis support line on 13 11 14 that is available to all residents in the Hunter area who may need to reach out for help and support after this tragic incident.
All of these services are free of charge with no GP referral or mental health plan required, which allows for anyone to be able to access these services in the community without the added stress of adding another requirement to their worries.
Lifeline's free face-to-face counselling in Singleton is run out of the Singleton Neighbourhood Centre at 21 Mary Street, Singleton. To book into the face-to-face counselling those seeking support just need to call 1300 152 854.
Lifeline can also offer support to local businesses who are find themselves providing front line support. If you are interested in attending any talks in the coming weeks and months, please contact them on the details below.
You can also access their grief and loss factsheet to help dealing with grief here.
For further information on Lifeline Hunter and the services they provide, you can go to their website: https://lifelinedirect.org.au/hunter/services/counselling
