Beyond Bushfires: Community, Resilience and Recovery - a longitudinal mixed method study of the medium to long term impacts of bushfires on mental health and social connectedness

Abstract

BackgroundNatural disasters represent an increasing threat both in terms of incidence and severity as a result of climate change. Although much is known about individual responses to disasters, much less is known about the social and contextual response and how this interacts with individual trajectories in terms of mental health, wellbeing and social connectedness. The 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia caused much loss of life, property destruction, and community disturbance. In order to progress future preparedness, response and recovery, it is crucial to measure and understand the impact of disasters at both individual and community levels.Methods/designThis study aims to profile the range of mental health, wellbeing and social impacts of the Victorian 2009 bushfires over time using multiple methodologies and involving multiple community partners. A diversity of communities including bushfire affected and unaffected will be involved in the study and will include current and former residents (at the time of the Feb 2009 fires). Participants will be surveyed in 2012, 2014 and, funding permitting, in 2016 to map the predictors and outcomes of mental health, wellbeing and social functioning. Ongoing community visits, as well as interviews and focus group discussions in 2013 and 2014, will provide both contextual information and evidence of changing individual and community experiences in the medium to long term post disaster. The study will include adults, adolescents and children over the age of 5.DiscussionConducting the study over five years and focussing on the role of social networks will provide new insights into the interplay between individual and community factors and their influence on recovery from natural disaster over time. The study findings will thereby expand understanding of long term disaster recovery needs for individuals and communities.

Psychological outcomes following the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires

“…Accordingly, in response to the Black Saturday bushfires, we started a large-scale survey of community and individual responses to the disaster and to subsequent developments (Gibbs et al, 2013). Overall, this programme represents a multi-method, longitudinal analysis of social connectedness and individual psychological outcomes.…”

Bridging the Macro and the Micro by Considering the Meso: Reflections on the Fractal Nature of Resilience

“…The defining discipline of the field seems to be the science of social-ecological systems, with its heritage in the resilience notion from ecosystems science Cooper 2011, Alexander 2013). Although the field also includes engineering studies of resilient infrastructure networks (McDaniels et al 2008, Cimellaro et al 2013, or action research frameworks dedicated to capacity development of communities and societies (Becker et al 2011), there is also a branch clearly positioned in the health sciences (Gibbs et al 2013, Hamiel et al 2013, O'Sullivan et al 2013. The threats forming a coherent rationale behind most studies of societal resilience are (1) natural disasters or (2) antagonistic acts to which the system needs to adapt without changing its form (Gunderson and Holling 2002).…”

Human Rights-Based Approach to Disaster Management: Valparaiso, Chile

“…A review of the extant literature that focuses on disaster preparedness in communities reveals an emphasis on resilience of the citizens of the affected area and of the community in general (Gibbs, et al, 2013;Manyena & Gordon, 2015;Townshend, 2015;Ward, et al, 2015). Resilience, while an intangible concept, tends to be defined by the ability of a community to either Bbounce back^to pre-disaster levels of daily living or to become stronger and to develop more effective coping skills in the event of a subsequent crisis or disaster.…”