Two new podcast episodes are helping disseminate recent research and resources that are building Australia’s resilience to natural hazards – one focusing on mental health of volunteers and one sharing lessons from previous disasters.
The first is a Better Together podcast episode, released by the Emergency Services Foundation, highlighting Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research completed by Dr Amanda Taylor’s team at the University of Adelaide as part of the Positive mental health in young adult emergency services personnel project.
The Better Together series is dedicated to supporting the wellbeing and mental health of emergency services staff, with the most recent episode focusing on Dr Taylor’s work that explored the mental health of young volunteers and what is being done to support their wellbeing within emergency service agencies.
The episode was hosted by Emergency Services Foundation’s CEO Siusan MacKenzie and Manager of Mental Health and Wellbeing at Victoria State Emergency Service, Rachel Treeby. Throughout the conversation, Dr Taylor explained the specifics of the research methodology, as well as the key findings and subsequent resources, especially highlighting the Care4Guide.
The Care4Guide is a practical, reliable and usable resource to empower young fire and emergency services volunteers to strengthen their mental health, available at www.bnhcrc.com.au/resources/volunteer-mental-health. Also available is a framework and implementation guide so that the findings and resources can be applied within agencies, by the agency leaders themselves, to further support mental health and wellbeing for young people.
When speaking about her most valued experience while working on the project, Dr Taylor highlighted how influential and important the Young Volunteers Advisory Committee members were, who worked with researchers to develop the resources.
“Seeing how these young people made these conversations a safe space to discuss their experiences, how they responded to each other and ensured that each other were heard, and the incredible things they were doing in their agencies…they were such inspiring people.”
You can listen to this podcast episode here: esf.com.au/resources/better-together-podcast/.
The second podcast is an episode of Common Ground by Toposophy, titled ‘Climate fight: meet the frontliners’. This episode, hosted by Daphne Karnezis, highlights important resilience-building activities and policies being developed since the devastating impacts of different natural hazards around the world, including Hurricane Sandy in New York, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, sea level rise in California and Black Summer in Australia.
One of those interviewed is Dr John Bates, the Research Strategy Director at Natural Hazards Research Australia, speaking about how research is helping to learn from past bushfire threats, as well as the development of the Australian Disaster Resilience Index.
“The basis for resilience is put in place well before a natural hazard comes through and causes a disaster,” Dr Bates said.
“It’s a lot about the strength of the community coming together. The work with did with the Australian Disaster Resilience Index is a really good starting point. We now want to understand what it would take to change the resilience of a region.”
“If there is one message in all of this when we look at the challenges of natural hazards and the disasters that they cause, it’s that we can’t look at them in isolation. We need to understand what change is happening with people, what’s happening with the living landscape, what’s happening with the built environment,” Dr Bates explained.
“What is it that we need to protect in each community? It might be slightly different for each, but what are those things that, if we keep them, community is likely to stick together and feel like it is still a community; and what are the things that, if we lose them, are going to be catastrophic for that community?”
You can listen to this podcast episode here: open.spotify.com/episode/2BIIoJB7JHwYK5MMh9JBi6?si=wyXEOrBpQ2C6rRxyP5SfLg.