Dear members,

Last month the world was shocked by terrorist attacks in Beirut and then Paris, and the Australian media was filled with stories of extreme violence, and images of shocked, grieving people around the world. 

Back at home our bushfire season started early as feared, with 6 tragic deaths before summer had even started.  Four people died in Esperance, WA, and 2 people died last week in the Barossa Valley, SA, where 90 homes were also destroyed.  Our thoughts go out to members living and working in these areas.

We continue to update our disaster recovery and preparedness resources on the APS website to help communities prepare for and respond to traumatic and frightening events.  Follow the links in this newsletter to see what's new.

Also in this newsletter we provide some information for DRN members who like to volunteer when we support the Red Cross in their work.   

Stay safe over summer everyone,

Kind regards,

Dr Susie Burke
Public Interest, Environment and Disaster Response

As you know, the APS often helps the Red Cross with their psychosocial support programs following a disaster event in Australia.  Currently we support them in 3 ways: independent debriefing, depolyments in the field as workforce wellbeing officers, and running support groups in affected communities.

When a disaster event occurs, the Red Cross will contact the APS if they require our help with independent debriefing (a job you can do from home in your own time) or for a workforce wellbeing officer role (usually a 6 day deployment into the disaster zone).  We then send out a call for volunteers to all our DRN members, and create an event shortlist of available DRN members.

Deployment in the field

DRN volunteers who are interested in being considered for a deployment with the Red Cross need to be prepared to free themselves up for a period of 6 days at short notice!  Some of our regular volunteers do this by letting family, employers and clients know ahead of time that they are a disaster response volunteer.  They explain that if a large scale disaster happens somewhere in Australia, they are likely to request leave or need to postpone clients for a week or so in order to volunteer with the disaster response efforts.  These preparatory conversations with family, work colleagues and clients make it much easier for them to extricate themselves quickly if the opportunity arises to assist Red Cross. 

If you think you would like to be available as a DRN volunteer for a deployment, this pre-planning might come in very useful!

On November 12th and 13th, four members of the APS disaster response reference group, Professor David Forbes, Professor Mark Creamer, Professor Richard Bryant and Dr Susie Burke, joined psychologists and psychiatrists and other disaster experts from America, Canada, the UK, and Australia in a two day international roundtable meeting in Sydney to begin to develop an internationally agreed protocol to address the mental health impact of disasters. 
The roundtable Psychological Recovery following Community Disaster: An International Collaboration was a joint initiative of Phoenix Australia and The Prince’s Charities Australia.  The group were honoured to meet and speak with HRH the Prince of Wales at the welcome reception on the first day of the roundtable. 
The aim of the international collaboration is to design and evaluate an intervention for individuals with sub-clinical psychological problems in the months following exposure to a disaster.  The intervention will be trialled in all four countries before being made widely available for adoption. 
There is currently no readily available, trialled and tested intervention for the significant proportion of people exposed to disaster who are at risk of developing clinically significant, but sub-threshold psychological problems. Unless supported adequately, these people are at increased risk of going on to develop more serious mental health problems. This proposed intervention will fill a significant gap in disaster recovery in developed countries around the world.

Extreme and distressing events like the recent violent attacks in Paris and Beirut are powerful and upsetting incidents. Even following these events from a distance on the media can be distressing.  Below are some helpful resources for responding to these events, looking after yourself after a crisis, and for helping children to deal with frightening events.
• Guidelines for talking with children about terrorism
• Understanding and managing psychological trauma APS Tip Sheet
• Psychological First Aid: An Australian Guide
• Tips for promoting peace

As usual, APS National Office will be supporting local APS Branches in their response and recovery if an event should occur in their region.  A useful document for Branches to help with their planning can be found here. 

When an APS  Branch is impacted by an extreme weather event, we sometimes get asked by the Commitee for a list of local DRN members.  If you would not like your details provided to your local branch, please contact us at drn@psychology.org.au.

 

Four very useful and accessible webinars about children and disasters

http://earlytraumagrief.anu.edu.au/webinars

 

A short Phoenix Australia video on Understanding Trauma.

http://phoenixaustralia.org/recovery/what-are-traumatic-events/

The final edition of Resilience for 2015, the newsletter for the emergency sector from Australian Red Cross Emergency Services.

 

Kate Brady, National Recovery Coordinator for Australian Red Cross, is doing a PhD research project out of the University of Melbourne. The project aims to find out what people who have been impacted by a disaster think was helpful in their recovery.

By asking people to write a letter to themselves about what they considered to be helpful (and unhelpful) to recovering from a disaster, we hope to be able to analyse this information for consistent themes that can be used to inform recovery policy and practice.

To find out more information about the project, go to www.thisiswhathappensafter.com. 

This project looks at 'post traumatic growth'. It sets out to understand and collect people's growth experiences following a disaster.  It is survivor led and gives voice to those often without a voice.

To read more, click here.

 

 

The APS Learning Institute has an online practice certificate in disaster support. This certificate comprises four online courses that focus on preparing for disasters and responding to the social and psychological needs of persons and communities affected by disasters.

Course A: Disasters in context
Course B: Level 1 early intervention
Course C: Level 2 psychological strategies
Course D: Ethical and professional issues in disaster response
Courses can be selected and taken individually but Course A: Disasters in context is basic preparation for the three remaining courses.
http://www.psychology.org.au/APSinstitute/practice-certificate/.