24 Support Helpline Our National Helpline provides support and counselling seven days a week from 8am to 12 midnight via phone, webchat and email. In addition our Chatbot KIT assists our community 24/7 via our website. Contacts to our National Helpline rose by 11% across 20/21 financial year. We have maintained a >80% client satisfaction rating and have a >80% response rate during a very challenging period. Webchat continues to be the preferred method of contact with over 50% of contacts entering via this channel. Due to COVID we have seen an increase in contact duration, case complexity and more carers making contact. We have also provided over 293 individual ‘waitlist’ interventions for those seeking support while awaiting diagnosis or on a waitlist for professional health services. We have been successful in reaching more of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from multicultural backgrounds and people who identify as LGBTQIA+. Growth over time plus COVID-19 Impacts Our Helpline has experienced a 275% growth rate over the last five years. While it is easy to attribute this to the impacts of COVID-19, we experienced a 78% growth in service contact rates between FY2018 and 2019. COVID-19 has certainly built on this and in many ways has created the ‘perfect storm’ for eating disorders with government-imposed community movement restrictions, greater time spent with family and carers, greater time spent online, and other factors contributing to an increase in Helpline services demand. To address on-going increased demand, our Helpline employee numbers have been increased (due to additional COVID-19 funding from the Federal Government) and we are continuing to seek operating model efficiencies to ensure we can continue to service our growing contact base. 24