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

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