Being a Lifeline volunteer is a confronting, heartbreaking job at the best of times.

Trying to attentively listen to people's cries for help while making sure not to overstep personal boundaries – it's a role that can be extremely fulfilling, but it comes at a hefty price.

Watching the nation's mental health epidemic unravel before your very eyes, while physically being unable to prevent deaths, is an unimaginable challenge that 55-year-old volunteer Text Crisis Supporter Sonny Tuapola knows all too well.

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Though through time he's learned to switch-off once a shift is done, emotions can't always be blocked, especially when it comes to the escalating emergency among Australia's children, which Tuapola says is undoubtedly "the hardest part".

At around 9am each day, when parents set off to work and kids are left alone – either at home, school or anywhere else in between – traffic to the text line surges.

"They're texting from their bedrooms, homes, bathrooms, the back of the buildings, everywhere," Tuapola tells 9News.com.au.

"I do the 6am to 10am shift, and you know, you get adults texting in on the way to work, pulling over their cars on the side of the road.

"But towards 9 o'clock, something else happens, you get all the school kids.

"And there's a lot – a lot of kids calling.

"That's the hardest part." 

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