Book of Abstracts 2013 - Australian and New Zealand Disaster ...

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Volunteering North Queensland (VNQ) following Cyclone Yasi and ongoing up to and including the Bundaberg flood recovery. VCRCG/ VNQ has been involved in the planning and coordination of community at the recent Bundaberg regional floods. Prior to that, they were heavily involved in community recovery after the, Townsville tornado event and Cyclone YASI in Townsville and Ingham areas. The VCRCG program coordinates community organisation that have capability to utilise casual volunteers for recovery to supplement the work carried out by the more formal disaster agencies. It also provides disaster community awareness training/information to individuals and community organisations. The VCRCG program is part of the Townville Local Disaster Management Plan and was developed through consultation with community, sporting, and social organisations. The VCRCG program fills the gap identified after the recent COAG conference in WA on how to utilise community to help community. This presentation will look at the progress of the VCRCG over the past three years and discuss observations gleaned from community disaster debriefings. The program receives no local, state, federal or private funding and is led by organisations principally run by community and utilises volunteers and what the community can bring to the table. Discussed will be the group’s principle agenda to better identify community resources; to supply free, specific, community awareness training; create a structure of community team leaders and co-ordination. This, in its purest form, amounts to creating a more resilient community. To date the out of pocket expenses have been borne by the VCRCG volunteers and receives administrative support from Volunteering North Queensland. Mr Peter Rogers Co-Director Climate Futures, Macquarie University Researching Resilience: An Agenda for Change This paper will discuss the background and status of academic research in disaster resilience from western perspectives and map the possible future trajectory of this progressive policy agenda. Drawing on research in disaster management, security studies, international relations and social sciences the paper offers a critical perspective on the current state of play in international research on disaster resilience. Some suggestions are made on how academic approaches can better interface with policy solutions to the wicked problem of disasters. In light of the recent announcement of the NSW led Disaster Resilience Cooperative Research Centre bid in 2013, this paper will highlight the growing potential for Australia to take the lead in developing theoretically informed, empirically grounded and policy relevant cooperative research solutions - for both Australia and for the international community. The goal of this paper is to offer one potential roadmap of how research on resilience can help, not hinder, the broader policy agenda for increased societal security and disaster resilience. Dr Allison Rowlands Director, Disaster Welfare, Ministry for Police and Emergency Services Co Author - Mr Gregory Gibbs, Regional Planning Officer, Ministry for Police and Emergency Services Major Evacuation Centre Planning in NSW – Deniliquin Temporary Accommodation Centre This paper will outline the conceptualisation of and planning for a Major Evacuation Centre: its underlying principles, emergency arrangements context, and considerations for the congregate care of a large number of vulnerable people over ten days, uprooted from their home community. The NSW SES issued an evacuation order for the town of Hay (2,800 residents) on 15 March 2012, to take effect by 17 March, due to the predicted peak of the Murrumbidgee River exceeding the levee design height by nearly a metre. This evacuation order followed evacuations in several townships along the Murrumbidgee and other river systems. A communication strategy developed by SES preceded the order and continued with ongoing messaging and outreach over following days. Concurrently, the Welfare Services Functional
Area of NSW’s Emergency Management Plan embarked on planning the evacuation response and arrangements for the care of the community. This resulted in development and erection of a 500 bed major evacuation centre (MEC) at Deniliquin, 124 kilometres distant. Disaster Welfare Services Alumni managed the DW Unit, support by local Community Services staff. Multiple issues were identified and resolved by this team and implications for future planning and practice articulated. Some of these key issues are explored in the paper: Remoteness of the intervention and supervision and support for the welfare team Responding to the needs of vulnerable groups within the evacuated community Culturally sensitive practice Information provision Planning leisure activities/managing boredom Interagency liaison, joint interventions, and referrals Occupational health and safety issues Managing the community meetings, tensions and psychosocial issues within the evacuated community Impacts on the host community Managing the return process Managing local, regional and state level processes and relationships within the emergency management agencies. A/Prof Jane Shakespeare-Finch Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology Co Author - Mrs Julie Green, student, Queensland University of Technology Social support promotes psychological well-being following a natural disaster Receiving emotional support has consistently been demonstrated as an important factor associated with mental health but sparse research has investigated giving support in addition to receiving it or the types of support that predict wellbeing. In this paper the relationship between giving and receiving instrumental and emotional social support and psychological well-being during and following a natural disaster is investigated. A survey administered between four and six months after fatal floods was conducted with 200 community members consisting of men (n = 68) and women (n = 132) aged between 17 and 87 years. Social support experiences were assessed using the 2-Way Social Support Scale (2-Way SSS; Shakespeare-Finch & Obst, 2011) and eudemonic well-being was measured using the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS; Ryff & Keyes, 1995). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine expected relationships and to explore the differential effects of the four factors of the 2-Way SSS. Results indicated that social support shared significant positive associations with domains of psychological well-being, especially with regards to interpersonal relationships. Receiving and giving emotional support were respectively the strongest unique predictors of psychological well-being. However, receiving instrumental support predicted less autonomy. Results highlight the importance of measuring social support as a multidimensional construct and affirm that disaster response policy and practice should focus on emotional as well as instrumental needs in order to promote individual and community psychosocial health in a flooding crisis. Dr Deborah Snell Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Otago at Christchurch Co Authors - Associate Professor Lois Surgenor, Associate Professor, University of Otago at Christchurch. Associate Professor Martin Dorahy, Associate Professor, University of Canterbury. Application of the Conservation of Resources Theory to understanding coping and adjustment in Police staff 12-18 months following the Canterbury earthquakes. AIM Police as a large and stable ‘first responder’ work force are typically involved in victim recovery, civil emergencies and community support following a significant earthquake. In addition this group are also exposed to the ‘everyday’ work and non-work related repercussions/disruptions associated with such a disaster. Conservation of resources (COR) theory offers a potentially helpful framework within which longer term health outcomes associated with disaster
Page 1 and 2: Australian & New Zealand Disaster a
Page 3 and 4: Mr Mark Armstrong Director, Full Ca
Page 5 and 6: Dr Haydn Betts Manager Water Resour
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Page 9 and 10: The project included a range of lea
Page 11 and 12: Dr Lisa Gibbs Assoc Director, Brock
Page 13 and 14: however, because of their exception
Page 15 and 16: their losses whilst ensuring public
Page 17 and 18: natural catastrophe? The discussion
Page 19 and 20: Mr Michael MacLennan Principal Cons
Page 21 and 22: Aucklanders will also receive advan
Page 23 and 24: Ms Catherine O'Mullan Lecturer, CQ
Page 25: Mr Avijit Paul Queensland Universit
Page 29 and 30: Government Organisations, and Emerg
Page 31 and 32: as a potential lifeline to better u
Page 33 and 34: Mr Mark Armstrong Director, Full Ca
Page 35 and 36: disasters always involve a portion
Page 37 and 38: Mr Bob Dick Independent scholar, In
Page 39 and 40: 35.65 % (about 808 ha) of the urban
Page 41 and 42: approach in redesigning the FireWat
Page 43 and 44: managers from around the world chal
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