Mental health recovery focus for bushfires studies

Every day Reverend Tracey Wolsley meets people affected by the 2009 Victorian Black Saturday bushfires. She runs a community centre called ‘Our Place, a Place of Hope’ in Bendigo.

Destroying around 61 houses in Bendigo’s western suburbs, the fires came within a few kilometres of the town centre.

Helping at the local CFA on Black Saturday, she saw ‘a wall of black’ coming towards her. “We never expected it to come so close,” she says.

“People were running from embers. Some said that with all the explosions and fire, it was like being in Vietnam. It was traumatic not knowing if your kids or husband were OK or if your house was gone.

“Although we didn’t have infrastructure destroyed, the impact was still traumatic. Loss is loss – disaster is disaster. This can be forgotten when comparisons are made with other communities.”

Set up initially as a Bushfire Recovery Centre after the 2009 bushfires, the centre changed to a community centre providing a range of support services to the fire-affected community.

“Three years later people are still well engaged with the Centre. We have found that offering ongoing support is very important. We do this in a number of ways such as activities and social events. We acknowledge individual journeys of grief and that for some it will take some time to recover.

“Disasters can affect mental and physical health, family and relationships for years to come.

“With every hot windy summer day, for example, people have heightened anxiety.”

She looks forward to a time when evidence-based research is backed up with funding to provide consistent long-term help.

Reverend Wolsley is participating in a University of Melbourne study to assess the long-term mental health impact on people affected by the 2009 fires.

The ‘Beyond Bushfires: Community Resilience and Recovery’ study focuses on the mental health and wellbeing of rural communities across Victoria who were directly or indirectly affected by the fires.

Dr Lisa Gibbs of the University’s School of Population Health and McCaughey Centre says it is hoped the results of the study will assist in the development of strategies to improve recovery in future catastrophes.

“We hope to establish some mental health and wellbeing strategies that individuals, communities and agencies can rely on if they ever face future natural disasters again,” she says.

Researchers developed the study in response to a need for research evidence to better support policy and service delivery decisions for fire-affected families and communities over time.

Over the next five years researchers will survey around 3000 children, adolescents and adults from about 20 communities, which experienced varying levels of fire impact. In-depth interviews will also be conducted to further explore experiences of community and recovery.

Principal Investigator Professor Elizabeth Waters says the long-term study was unique.

“Our point of difference from other studies that have looked at the impact of disaster on individual mental health or post traumatic stress disorder, is our long-term trajectory and emphasis on the connection between individual and community recovery,” she says.

The study, funded by the Australian Research Council, brings together a team of researchers with expertise in mental health, trauma, recovery, social networks, community and family health, child research, policy and emergency services.

Collaborators range from State Government, Red Cross, charities and local partners.

Dr Rob Gordon, a clinical psychologist who has worked in over 25 disasters in Australia and New Zealand says the study would be invaluable to gather urgently needed evidence about the patterns of impact and recovery and the full timescale involved.

“This information will be vital in preparing for effective support in future disasters,” he says.

Another University of Melbourne-led study focuses on assessing the disaster response of the Victorian mental health workforce.

The project, the first of its kind in Australia, involves surveying the capacity of practitioners and volunteers to provide best practice mental health support after natural disasters such as bushfires, floods or severe storms.

The Victorian Disaster Mental Health Workforce Capacity Survey will determine the Victorian disaster mental health workforce capacity at state, district, regional, and municipal levels.

It will reach almost 20,000 Victorian health practitioners including psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, GPs, nurses, counsellors as well as volunteer and recovery workers.

Lennart Reifels of the Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics in the Melbourne School of Population Health, who is undertaking the study for his PhD, says the capacity to provide co-ordinated and timely mental health support at various levels of community need after a disaster is critical.

“The ‘tsumani of good will’ or the rush to assist after a disaster doesn’t always mean best practice is available,” he says.

“This survey will assist us to determine the make-up of the Victorian disaster support network and its capacity to provide improved mental health services in future,” he says.

Reverend Wolsley agrees that all levels of disaster relief should work together.

“A co-ordinated response to recovery is important. In particular people need to have the choice to seek out the kind of help they need when they need it,” she says.

“Not everyone is going to put their hand up and say, ‘I need to speak to a psychologist’. Understanding grief at all stages of recovery and providing a range of services is critical so that no community member falls through the cracks.”

The workforce capacity survey is funded through the Natural Disaster Resilience Grants Scheme (NDRGS) of the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department and the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner in Victoria. Partners include the Australian Health Workforce Institute and the University’s Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute.

Participants are sought for the Beyond Bushfires study
www.beyondbushfires.org.au

Check out our Visions vodcast story, ‘Mateship in Marysville’, which looks as community recovery efforts to rebuild the town after devastating bushfires in 2010.
http://visions.unimelb.edu.au/episode/80