ABORIGINAL and Torres Strait Islander-led crisis hotline, 13YARN, has marked 50,000 calls supporting First Nations people in crisis.
In the first two years of operation, the hotline has seen demand increase by 50%, from 17,000 calls in 2022 to 25,000 last year.
National Program Manager Marjorie Anderson said, "many of these peaks coincide with sorry business, deaths in community and challenging moments in community life".
"We also support people in distress around the New Year period, Survival Day and through political and news moments such as the Voice Referendum, in which calls were up by 40%.
"Amid news reporting of the Productivity Commission's Closing the Gap report, we saw around 43% of calls related to racism, and again, the release of the data saw 47% of calls connected to racism.
"These two days represent the single highest figures to date," said Anderson.
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