The team at Full Stop Australia watched with bated breath last Sunday as the finale of ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here’ aired across Australia. Concetta Caristo was voted by the Australian public as the Queen of the Jungle, securing $100,000 of desperately needed funding for national trauma-specialist counselling service 1800 FULL STOP (1800 385 578).
Below, Full Stop Australia reflects on the immediate impact that exposure on a mainstream scale is having for an under-resourced charity, Australia’s longest running specialist service of its kind.
Mondays are already busy for our helplines, because people experiencing sexual assault or domestic and family violence can speak freely while children are in school or perpetrators are out of the house. The day after Concetta’s win, 1800 FULL STOP received almost double the number of calls than a regular Monday. Shifts were quickly added to meet the surge in demand.
This week our counsellors are repeatedly hearing from first-time callers that the catalyst for them reaching out was Concetta sharing that services like Full Stop Australia supported her, her sister, and her mum to escape domestic violence. One of our counsellors told me, “After watching the show, this caller felt she had finally found an organisation who could support her with her lifelong complex trauma”.
At the core of what we do is an unshakable belief that a life free from violence is possible; that specialist healing and recovery allows people to live fuller and happier lives. Concetta is a formidable woman, not only for her bravery in the jungle, but for the reminder to Australia that victim-survivors of violence are so much more than just that. ‘You have to see it to be it’ as they say. When it comes to seeing what specialist support can do for people, an undeniable example has just danced her way onto stage for all of Australia to witness.
Full Stop Australia’s small, dedicated operations team have been overwhelmed by the flow on effects this experience has had engaging the community online and in the real world. In the last week we’ve seen a 1400% increase in reach on our Instagram and several first-year university students – a community disproportionately impacted by sexual violence – sought out our team at their orientation day after learning about the service from Concetta on the radio.
You can’t buy that kind of reach. No literally, we can’t afford it. Even funded services are often beholden to agreements that exclude operational costs beyond service delivery.
The airtime Concetta and her colleagues used to uplift this cause has been translating into direct donations to Full Stop Australia too. 1800 FULL STOP helps bridge the gap when other support systems cannot respond to more complex presentations of trauma, playing a unique role within the support sector in Australia. 1800 FULL STOP still relies entirely on donations and philanthropic support as it’s only form of funding.
For now, this generous $100,000 donation will quietly fund hundreds, maybe thousands, of life changing counselling sessions. Going forward, I hope this moment serves as a blaring alarm to governments that the voting public of Australia care about this issue, and they show up to the polls.
Anyone in Australia impacted by sexual, domestic and family violence can access 24/7, free and confidential trauma-specialist counselling is available by calling 1800 FULL STOP (1800 385 578) or webchat with our counsellors at fullstop.org.au.