When the Call for Help Goes Unanswered: What It Teaches Us About Trust in Relationships

This week, Optus faced heavy criticism after yet another outage disrupted emergency Triple-Zero calls. For hours, Australians in urgent need couldn’t reach the help they depended on. Leaders demanded accountability, and the public responded with frustration, fear, and distrust.

It’s a stark reminder of something we often forget: when systems fail, trust is broken and the psychological toll lingers long after the headlines fade.

Trauma, Hypervigilance, and Safety

For someone already vulnerable, whether through past abuse, trauma, or mental health struggles, these kinds of failures can hit especially hard. Safety isn’t just physical; it’s emotional. When a system we rely on falters, it can amplify existing anxieties: “If I can’t trust this to work when I need it most, what else in my life could fail me?”

That hypervigilance, the sense of always being on edge, is something I see often in my work. It’s exhausting, and it corrodes our relationships as much as it corrodes our sense of self.

Accountability and Repair

In relationships, missteps and conflicts are inevitable. What matters isn’t perfection, but how we repair. Do we take responsibility? Do we demonstrate change? Do we rebuild trust with actions, not just words?

Institutions are no different. When an organisation like Optus issues an apology without genuine repair, people see through it. Accountability is about more than statements... it’s about demonstrating change that restores faith.

Collective Mental Health

Failures like this don’t just affect individuals. They bleed into communities. The sense of safety we share as a society is fragile, and when safeguards prove unreliable, collective anxiety grows.

This is why the conversation about trust, accountability, and repair is not just a corporate one, it’s also about mental health, wellbeing, and resilience. The systems we live within shape our daily stress levels, our sense of safety, and even the way we connect with one another.

A Call to Reflect

So here’s the real questions: Where are the “systems” in your own life, whether in your family, workplace, or relationships that need repair? How do you show others that you can be trusted, especially after a misstep? And when trust has been damaged, how do you rebuild it?

When calls for help go unanswered, whether from a phone in crisis or a partner in pain, the lesson is clear. Repair is non-negotiable. Trust, once broken, can only be restored through responsibility and consistent action.