Wellbeing for workers supporting children and families after a disaster

Audio transcript (edited)

JACQUIE LEE: Hi everyone and welcome to today's webinar, Wellbeing for Workers Supporting Children and Families after a Disaster. My name is Jacquie Lee and I am a Provisional Psychologist and Practice Development Officer at Emerging Minds. I’d like to start by acknowledging the Kaurna people, the traditional custodians of the beautiful Adelaide Plains where I am joining you from today. I pay my respects to the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, including the different lands our panelists are joining us from.  And I invite you to share in the chat which lands you're tuning in on today. In the context of this discussion about disasters, I would also like to recognise the ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have cared for country for the past 60,000+ years through methods such as cultural burning. I pay my respect to their wisdom and practices, as well as to culture,  and to elders, past, present and emerging. 

Before we get into our discussion, I have a little housekeeping to cover. Live captions are available for this webinar. If you would like to use them, please follow the link in the chat box. There will be a live Q&A at the end, if you would like to submit a question, you can use the questions box in the GoToWebinar dashboard. 

Today's webinar is being recorded. The recording will be available in about two weeks and you will be able to find it on the AIFS and Emerging Minds websites under the webinar banner. Our guest panellists have compiled a list of related readings and resources for you, which you can find on a handout section of your GoToWebinar panel. 

And lastly, there will be a short feedback survey that will open at the end of the webinar that we would really love you to take a couple of minutes to fill out, so that we can continue to deliver you the webinars that you want to see. 

We’d also like to recognise the children, young people and adults within families and diverse communities with lived experience of disasters. We recognise the pain and heartache these families have experienced, but also the strengths, and know how they have drawn to navigate difficult times. We respect the skills they have developed to contribute their lived experience to guide our practice in support of families like theirs. We invite you to join us as we commit to deeply listening and responding with integrity to their voices and expertise. 

Lastly, we have a couple of quick definitions which will be helpful to keep in mind as we go through today's discussion. A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity. This includes environmental hazards such as floods, bushfires, cyclones and drought, as well as man-made hazards such as war, violent crime and terrorism. Disasters cause significant destruction and harm to individuals, communities and/or the environment. Often resulting in widespread suffering, loss of life, property damage and the disruption of normal functioning. In the context of today's webinar, a worker is any individual with a role that involves or might involve supporting infants, children, parents and/or families in the context of a disaster. This includes both professionals and volunteers. Today, we will mostly be discussing the experiences related to environmental disasters, but the insights you gain from our panellists can be used to support individuals in relation to many different types of disasters.

Now it is my pleasure to introduce our panellists. Michelle Roberts, Tayla Iellamo and Sarnia Ralston. Their full bios can be found in the handout section in the GoToWebinar dashboard.

So, I’d like to kick-off with a quick introductory question for everyone. Michelle, I’ll start with you – welcome and thank you for joining us today. You have a wealth of experience in supporting professionals, children and families through disasters. What initially drew you to this work?

MICHELLE ROBERTS: Hi everyone, and thanks Jacquie you for the intro. Forty years of doing this work, and when I reflect back on how I got on that train and how haven't managed to get off it at any point in time along the way, it began with probably my interest in children and grief. While doing my undergraduate studies as a psychologist, that was my focus.

In my first year of teaching at a secondary school, we had the Ash Wednesday bushfires impact the area where I was teaching. And I saw firsthand the impacts that had on my colleagues - the staff, the community, and most of all the students that I was teaching. That got my interest in disaster mental health in children and their development and their impacts of disaster on the trajectory. 

When I went to my supervisor to say I wanted to do my thesis in that area, she told me it was a ridiculous thought, and that children and trauma wasn't a thing. We were just in the early 1980s way back when, thinking about trauma in terms of disasters rather than military-related trauma only, and we haven't quite made the step from adult focus to a child recognition. And so, I was caught in what I saw as an injustice and wanting to work in the area and understand it more to and advocate more in that area.

JACQUIE LEE: That is incredible. It’s great to see how far it has come, though there is always further to go. We’re very lucky to have you with us today.

Tayla, how is your background in occupational therapy informed your approach to maintaining work and wellbeing in the disaster context?

TAYLA IELLAMO:Thanks, Jacquie. I found OT is probably not as well known for working disaster recovery but I found my background really offers a holistic lens of understanding wellbeing. When I think about it and when I think about myself or someone in my team, I like to consider personal factors. My values and strengths, my physical health, the environment, which for many of us, myself included working remotely, is also my home – so that’s shared with my family; and the requirements and the demands of the job. All of these elements can be protective but they can also add stress, especially in the context that we work in.

JACQUIE LEE: Ofcourse, thank you for joining us. Look forward to hearing more of that holistic perspective as we go through.

Sarnia, welcome. Can you briefly explain the dual perspective you are bringing to today's conversation?

SARNIA RALSTON: Thanks, Jacquie. Hi everyone. As Jacquie mentioned, I have a dual perspective in that as a parent, our family experienced the NSW bushfires back in 2019. From there, moved out of state, into Queensland, up to the far north, which isn't a stranger to many disasters. We then experienced subsequent Cyclone Jasper and the flooding which had the main impact on our family living in beautiful Machans beach. I have that perspective and also the perspective of working and supporting communities for over 20 years now - supporting children, families and communities.

JACQUIE LEE: Thank you for bringing both of those perspectives today. I'm sure you you’ve got a lot of valuable insights to share. We would like to begin today by sharing a short video to get us all thinking about work or wellbeing in the context of disasters.

As you watch the video, we invite you to consider what resonates with your own understanding and experiences and what might be new and/or different. And to share your reflections on the chat box.

[Video plays]

MICHELLE ROBERTS: When it comes to wellbeing, it is a shared responsibility. It is about us looking after ourselves, taking steps that look after our own wellbeing; being proactive about that, not waiting until we know we are falling and over looking for someone to pick us up. But doing all the things that we know that work towards our own mental health and protective factors for us and our families. Then, working within the organisation to make sure that it is a worker wellbeing friendly type of organisation that has the structures and the philosophy behind it, that helps us to look after ourselves; to look after our peers and our colleagues, and to work in a safe way as an organisation. So, all of all wellbeing, particularly in the disaster sector is a shared responsibility.

SARAH EAGLAND: This is such an important work and it is really rewarding work. But it can be personally challenging and it is really important that we acknowledge that explicitly, as a team. Without having a wellbeing project was really helpful, and part of that project was having individual wellbeing plans. The importance of understanding that for each person, it is unique. I think, traditionally, wellbeing has been sitting as the personal responsibility of the worker. And, sometimes the focus is really more on things like yoga; and it’s just another thing for you to do. But the way we saw wellbeing is that it is an organisational responsibility, and it was a combination of organisational protective factors but also looking at personal protective factors.

PAUL SCOTT: We know that there is evidence-informed, evidence-based with practice initiatives, and we put them in policy documents. And they look fantastic on computers and on the screen and on the shelves. But we have to live them. So, how do we encourage our collaborative cohort, our workplaces, in order to do that with one another? So, it is not just the organisation’s responsibility. It is not just my individual responsibility. It is a collective.

CHRIS GOSTELOW: I think one of the things that is really vital as you focus on self-care. You can prepare yourself beforehand and you may well think about where am I at and how I get this off in the right state, so I that can verbally engage appropriately and I can nonverbally be in the right spot to authentically interact with people affected by disaster. But one of the things that is really important is to monitor yourself; that self-monitoring before, during that involvement as a practitioner; how am I travelling? One of the things I will often do, is just to check on myself. Because I don't check myself I may be speaking a lot faster than I need to; I may be moving a lot faster; I may not be as available for the people that I'm trying to support. So, check on yourself. But I want to talk about the period after. Because I think the period after, often times has been exhilarating, it has been exciting in a certain way to be involved in this work; it is an adrenaline rush stuff a lot of the time. It is very challenging. The environment that is overstimulating for everybody, including practitioners. So, that period afterwards, it is really important we possibly can, to interact with other practitioners immediately afterwards. Just touch base - see how you're going. How were your/what was the experience? What was your experience by comparison? So, just having some conversations I think is a really, really useful part of the whole process. The other thing too, is be aware of your physiological needs. I think it is really important, where you can, to try to get - for me it is exercise, I need to move. I have a lot of adrenaline my blood and I need to move a bit. And so, I might go for a walk around the block or do something. But I’ll do something to give me a bit of time out, that acknowledges that I need to just almost “cleanse myself” if you like, to enable me to recover myself, to return myself to where I need to be for my family, and to return me to where I need to be if I’m to be a practitioner who is helpful and engaging tomorrow.

DR ALEX DE YOUNG: I think is really important to make sure that you have the support and supervision around you so you do have that ability to check in; and to get advice. In addition to that, that ability to prioritise your own self-care that you haven't at times. So making sure you know, those regular breaks, taking time off at weekends, doing all the things that you would be recommending that the families would be doing as well. And then I think, again, finally, just making, you know, focusing on what other positive, fun, creative ways you can connect with the children and families to help them.

SARAH EAGLAND: I found the disaster recovery community is also really generous in sharing their wisdom and experience. My first piece of advice would be to reach out and talk to others who are doing similar work.

Listening and getting an understanding of what your needs are. Remembering the skills you do have. It is not about a whole set of skills that you have to learn. It is actually things you're doing already in your work, and is just tailoring it and making sure that it is actually responding to this unique need in front of you.

Training was another area that helped wellbeing. If someone feels they have the skills to competently help in a very complex area, it makes so much difference. Professional development was ongoing, that was an important part of our wellbeing plan.

From an organisation's perspective, it can be the detail of things like having really clear processes; clear roles and responsibilities for people; a balanced workload; reviewing caseloads to make sure they are safe; recognising the additional complexity of this work.

DR ANDREA BALDWIN: You need to take care of yourself to be able to take care of others. Want you to not  burn out. We want you to be able to sustainably care for other people, not at the expense of yourself. We wanted it to be a rewarding and nurturing job to do.

[Video ends]

JACQUIE LEE: Thanks everyone. If you happen to have any trouble viewing the video, I know we have got a little bit of wild weather here, so mine was a bit glitchy, we will share the link after the webinar so you can rewatch it. And please, do go ahead and share your reflections with us in the chat.

I am curious to hear our panellists' reflections as well. Michelle, we saw you at the beginning of the video discussing how work and wellbeing is a shared responsibility. Could you perhaps elaborate on that for us?

MICHELLE ROBERTS: Sure. It is always funny watching yourself on video, isn't it? I think, oh I shouldn’t have said that!

Even in the video, we talk about the individual and collective responsibility and that term collective was used by Paul, and a lot of his work has been with emergency response agencies. But I don't want to have the takeaway message from that video that the organisation holds the full responsibility. We are in this transition period where we are starting to acknowledge the roles of both the individual and the organisation or the system. Or if you are a volunteer or self-activated within the community identifying as a leader, you do hold responsibility for your own wellbeing.

So, we do have responsibility to be fit for this work and being fit is, as Chris said, physically fit, mentally fit, and pre-prepared/psychologically prepared. So, we know the work can be tough on ourselves and our families. Let's not forget that we are part of a broader ecosystem ourselves. And what we do in the day comes home with us, despite trying really hard to mask it, not to share it, necessarily. It still comes home with us, in some way or another.

So, recognising the shared responsibility does not mean we ignore our own responsibilities. Whenever I am doing something like this webinar, I go and I look for what is new out there and what is fresh. And I came across the other day a Churchill Fellowship report written by a woman named Amy Nicholas. And she had looked at this very question - it was wonderful. 

So, I have been working my way through her report, and we will give you access to the reference for that in the chat, but I want to draw out some of the things that her Churchill taught her to share with us around organisational responsibility. And shes’s come at this query or this question from an organisational responsibility, in terms of health and safety and what the legislation says. And in 2022, there was what I would say are ramping up of the legislation, so that all the organisations have a required responsibility to proactively manage exposure to psychosocial hazards. 

We are used to thinking in terms of physical safety. They have shifted to include psychological and psychosocial safety. I really recommend you read it, it is very thought-provoking. She puts out there that this is her thoughts at this point in time and there may be critiques, challenges, considerations or different ideas that she is open to exploring further with people. But the sorts of things that we need to shift from, I think, is to enable in organisations to address and mitigate. So, you enable the individual, address what are perceived and foreseen psychosocial hazards and then, as a collective, look at what are mitigation strategies. We know that this work is tough, we know that if you do it, you do it going in with your eyes open. 

We know it is important, as Sarah said in the video, to have the training, the awareness of your own vulnerabilities and strengths, and organisational awareness of your strengths, and vulnerabilities as well. So yes, it is a collective in every term that we can think of in this work.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely, thanks Michelle. We will explore each of those elements a bit later in this webinar. Sarnia, what resonated with you the most as a parent?

SARNIA RALSTON: I think from the clip, and also this whole conversation, it really shows how organisations are valuing the whole worker. And how, taking into consideration that it is not just a self-indulgent act to, you know, take on self-care, but essential to show up both for work and then show up at home as well. So, the whole clip just really stands out in just how far we have come. And as Michelle said earlier, you know, looking back at her earlier research days, we have come so far and the organisational commitment to acknowledge a parent in their own right, with their children in their own right... It just models that beautiful ecosystem that we know is wrapped around our children. But our organisational approaches need to be the same because we are all are a part of families, communities, and societies. So, really good.

JACQUIE LEE: Yeah. On that note, I know we talk a lot in our work about taking a child-centred and family focused approach. How does that concept connect? Like, what does that mean when it comes to workers wellbeing in that ecosystem you just spoke about?

SARNIA RALSTON: SO, we know that children are deeply affected by the events around them, by the adults around them. And they look to the adults for that acknowledgement of their experience, their ability to regulate, co-regulate. So, we are all a part of this ecosystem, we can't compartmentalise that - 'this is my work role and now I will come home as a parent'. It is all really everflowing. Also, if we are experiencing and living in the places and spaces of disaster while we are supporting communities impacted, more so because they are watching our reactions as the adult in their ecosystem. 

So, having a child-centred and family-focused approach, it really makes sense in that when we can show up for ourselves and our family, we feel supported. And our organisations are part of that support. Again, coming back to the children, we are a protective factor for our children when we model our experiences of how we respond in disaster, in work, coming home. Even if that comes to the point of saying, "Mum has had a really tough day and I need a moment to just unwind from that." And model that, you know, we need to keep it real. It is not all masking and hiding for our children, that is not a protective factor. The protective factor is showing how we can regulate and how we can come back to show up for ourselves in order to show up for our children, our families, and our communities.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely. Thanks, Sarnia. Tayla, what stuck out to you in the video as both and mental health practitioner and team leader?

TAYLA IELLAMO: I think similar to Michelle, what really stood out to me was that wellbeing is a shared responsibility and there is a need for me to take responsibility for my own wellbeing and actually do the things I suggest families do in these cases and really practice what I preach to support my own mental health and my own wellbeing.. And continue, I guess, to build my own awareness of things I know will negatively affect me as well. 

There is also the responsibility of organisations to look after workers and provide those supports. And I was just reflecting when I first came into this 2019 with the bushfires, the manager said, "Wellbeing is your job. So that is your responsibility to do that as part of your everyday work.” And for me, now, as a leader, I have a responsibility to my team and also to advocate on their behalf what things that are going to support their wellbeing and what things could also affect theirs. So yeah, it is really that dual responsibility.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely. Before we continue, I was wondering Michelle, , if you could briefly explain the concept of 'cascading disasters' and why they are important to consider when we are talking about worker wellbeing?

MICHELLE ROBERTS: Cascading disasters is a relatively new term. The whole world of working in disasters is a rapidly evolving one with changes in concepts and as we have more frequent and more severe disasters impacting on ourselves and our communities. It is really interesting, when I stopped and had a good think about what we are using 'cascading disasters' as, terminology is important and often means different things to different people. So, the actual definition I came upon was that it refers to multiple hazards or disasters that occur sequentially. And that immediately gave me the image of dominoes. The first event, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth. So, it leads to a chain reaction, or cascade of unfortunate events. And I felt like I was probably channelling lickety snippet there with these um books of series of unfortunate events. But it is that domino effect of adversity. The adverse effects are interconnected and they're an outcome ofone event that affects another and another. And when I thought about a practice example for that, I was thinking about the floods that many of our areas, our geographic areas and our communities have experienced, especially over the last 4 years, in rapid succession. 

So flood can lead to a housing crisis, it can lead to displacement of families and people within communities, it leads to a loss of social support, resources they would have had if they had not been displaced, and the opportunity to recover with others within the community that have had that shared experience. So, it influences that secondary effect. It can actually lead to isolation and poorer mental health outcomes which leads to financial stress, which escalates the likelihood of family violence and exposure to violence for the children. Then I think about the consequences of exposure to violence and displacement and isolation and loss of support group for the developing child. And then I think about then that leads to sleep deprivation, learning problems at school, and then they are on a track of another, of one that has needs that they did not have before. 

So, from the one natural climate-related hazard, we have a scaffold or a domino effect to really changing so many factors within the child's life, their ecosystem, the support around them that their developmental trajectory goes from here to here. That is what we are talking about when we think about the cascading effects. It is easy to also interchange that with the compounding effects. So, when I talk about our use of language, I don't think that is really clear in the literature yet. They often used interchangeably, one thing makes worse another and another. Of course, we know facts or statistics like from UNICEF and Royal Far West's research, a child born in 2020 in Australia will experience 4 times more heatwaves, 3 times more droughts, 1.5 times more bushfires than me who was born in 1960, in their lifetime. Just the rapidity of their exposure is a factor to be considered in this.

For workers, we also experience it directly if we live within the area where these things are happening but also it means there is no pause for us. It is on and on and on and on. Same group, different disaster, different disaster, different group. It gets us running all the time and that makes it very hard to maintain the level of self-care we that need to.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely. Thanks, Michelle. That leads us quite nicely into the next section, sort of looking at what organisations can do in their part of that shared responsibility around wellbeing.

Tayla, in the video we saw your colleague, Sarah, discussing some of the ways Royal Far West supports workers wellbeing. What have you found most effective when it comes to supporting your own team in disaster recovery work?

TAYLA IELLAMO: Sarah spoke about some of the effective strategies working at both the individual and organisational level. She spoke about us embedding a staff wellbeing tool, that this is something staff can complete when they join the team and again every 5 months. It's quite simple but it’s really powerful and is in the resources. I find it is a really helpful tool to build a worker’s self-awareness and really open up conversations between the worker and leader because it gets you to identify, well, what are your early stress warning signs? So that you can identify it before it gets to that really pointy end.

I guess just an example of how it has been really helpful, I did have a team member that identified in their plan when they are starting to fall behind on their admin sort of tasks and starting to withdraw, which for this person is quite a bubbly person, it was a red flag or one of those signs. So when I noticed that had started to happen and noticed that in meetings we were able to check in, refer to her plan and make adjustments early on. It was really taking a proactive approach. I have learnt that in these contexts, in disaster context, people tend to take on multiple roles, and sometimes your scope can sort of be a bit blurred. You know, sometimes health clinicians can become caseworkers, teachers, local government workers become incidental counsellors, and community leaders become crisis responders.

So, we found that role clarity is really essential and where possible, having very clear processes for people to follow in a crisis because you find that those real executive functioning skills, when you are in those stressful times, are harder to access and are affected.

Sarah also spoke about training which has really been a key initiative. Because for me personally, there is nothing worse than feeling like you don't have the skills needed to show up and do your role. There are lots of free training and webinars out there for specific disaster work. So things like Emerging Minds has a lot of supports but also ADA has a lot of resources to support in this area that don't cost any money to sort of build your knowledge. But again you know, this work does require flexibility. We have found having more broad theoretical frameworks for the team, working with children and schools, helpful, like trauma-informed practice Hobfall's 5 essential elements of immediate or mass trauma because they are not prescriptive, but they can ensure your interventions that you are with schools or using with families., that they are guided by research. They’re interventions that promote a sense of safety, promote calming, promote self-efficacy, connectedness and hope.

JACQUIE LEE: Thank you, Tayla. Sarnia, a lot of organisations span entire states and teams of people living and working in both affected and non-affected areas. What challenges have you found in these situations and how can these kinds of organisations to support those staff members who are impacted by a disaster?

SARNIA RALSTON: Great question, and it is so important because the reality is that many organisations span across states and territories and also nationally. We know within one state, an area could be impacted by a bush fire or flood or cyclone, something going on, and the other part of the state is functioning as normal. So, when we create systems as Tayla mentioned within our organisation but also promote that across our communities, , we really help people understand their role in the broader part of supporting and checking in and responding.

When people are having vastly different experiences, I feel it is really important to understand the context in which our teams are working in our organisations. So, having really strong systems and policies in place that are looking more so at prevention focus, and a supporting focus. How do we be really proactive in a policy and not reactive? That really comes down to clear communication and understanding the context in which our teams work. The geographics of where our teams work. And then also, recognising and responding across those diverse areas, when disaster or experiences have occurred.

Again, clear communication, flexible workloads, knowing our teams, regular wellbeing check-ins, and also across broader organisation perspectives. I saw it firsthand and a lot of people in the far north, who commented that when south-east Queensland was experiencing a threat of cyclone, and how the comms coming out of Brisbane was fantastic. It is what we wanted to hear every time we up in the far north experience and not talking within my organisation – my organisation went above and beyond from my experience of Cyclone Jasper and the flooding, offering up temporary accommodation, which is something well beyond what my organisation should have done, but you know, booked us a motel and really supported, which was amazing.. But, you know, the contractual requirements we heard in the south-east Queensland, if you need to pause reporting etc because of this event happening in south-east Queensland, let us know. And I was thinking, wouldn't it be great if that happened when we had potential experiences up north or working remotely and talking to people remotely. It is about talking to communication and that consistent approach.

JACQUIE LEE: Thank you, Sarnia. Moving on to think about how individuals can look after their wellbeing. In the video, Chris emphasised the importance of self-care through every phase of a disaster. Starting off with you, Sarnia, how do you look after your wellbeing in the lead up to a disaster and how is your family factor into this?

SARNIA RALSTON: I definitely learned the hard way because I was in absolute denial of first time experience disaster and just brushed it off. It won't happen to us, and we will be fine. So, having learned from that and talking with my children and family, many incredible organisations and the work that you are all doing, the prevention in preparedness is essential. So, we know now some really core foundations that we can take in steps for our family.. We have every year a pack that we’ll prepare. Everybody plays a part - the littlest in our family has a part to play. I feel it is really important, particularly for children in preparing for disaster, in that, when they have a role to play, they help feel and have a sense of control. They feel they play a really significant contribution into the preparedness. And us  again, as adults, are modelling that response in how regulated we are, how we’re showing up, and that it’s actually a really organised, structured, relaxed, enjoyable process to work out what we are going to pack, who’s responsible for the guinea pigs, who’s going to pack the dog food, you know, all of these little things that really can't be a last-minute thing. So, that reinforces that preparedness is a shared responsibility, and when we keep our children at the centre of that, they can play such a significant role.

As Michelle said, they will potentially experience a lot more disaster than any of us have in our lifetime. So, it is really important to start that from a positive, strength-based approach.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely, thanks, Sarnia. Michelle, what have you found to be effective in maintaining wellbeing during a disaster?

MICHELLE ROBERTS: During disaster is a really interesting stage. In my reading that I made reference to, I came across a really useful quote, and it is very short. "The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering a loss daily and not be touched by it as unrealistic as expecting to walk through water and not get wet." That really resonated strongly with me because we walk alongside the people we are looking to support. We share in their exposures. You know Sarnia’sreference to the preparedness means being physically prepared but also means being psychologically prepared. You can do that as a person who’s about to experience the disaster. You can do that as a worker who’s about to support others who have been through the experience, or you can do it as both because we are often in both roles, as Sarnia exemplifies, and most of us have had lived experience as well as working in the space.

The during is fascinating. I reflected on the first time I knew the importance of role clarity in this context and Tayla made reference to it  In 1996, for those of you who weren't born, I'll tell you that that was the Port Arthur massacre. And it was the first really shocking mass casualty people perpetrated event, that had happened  for time that I know of, but maybe for a long time if I'm thinking about things that I don't know about necessarily. There was one police officer named Matthew Richmond and his reflections were so powerful. To this day, I remember his face and his name. Never seen him again. But it really sat with me that he was asked about leading people into what was a chaotic, unpredictable, dangerous situation to save life and limb, as is their duty, and to identify the perpetrator, and manage to stop the harm that was being done. They were as informed as they could be but it was an unfolding situation. Now that is a very special during-related stressor, that you are so activated within yourself that you have that really heightened necessary response that is going to keep you safe as possible. Tayla spoke about the alterations to our executive functioning when we’re in that state. The pinpoint laser vision you got searching for a threat.

If you can put yourself in a role of having to be faced with the challenge as well as the responsibility of helping, then you need to be thinking about how can you be prepared mentally. What am I likely to face, how do I prepare for that? If A happens what am I going to do. If B happens what am I going to do? I've been in that situation. It’s not just as a police officer or as a mental health professional. I have stood next to the body of a child that has been hit by a bus while all the kids are still on the bus and the mother comes and sees what happened. It is the most stressful thing. it is horrific. So, I need to think about my whatifs, my vulnerabilities, my strengths.  And from that experience, I learned one,  I'm a good person in a crisis, but boy, I have to work hard after because there is a lot to unpack about that experience. If you don't do that work, you don't work in this space again. That is such a recipe for unfolding yourself in a way that you don't want to do. So the during is really important.

We often get called in the after phase or the before phase but it is also quite possible that all of us have a role, whether we are a teacher, a school crossing person, a volunteer in the community, that we will be engaged in the during as well.

JACQUIE LEE: I think about a disaster like a drought where the during is... So prolonged. Thank you.

MICHELLE ROBERTS: Can I just very briefly say to that, that is a different sort of preparation because it is a marathon, not a sprint and if you don't see how you're going to be there in the long-term, if that is your role, you are going to burn out.

If you engage with all of your interpersonal connections while you are in the drought space supporting people and families, but your funding runs out or your organisation decides that it is too much to ask you to be there for the 3 years of the drought, then the consequences and they move you to another role, you’ve got to prepare yourself and know as much as you can beforehand of how long you are there for, what’s your role, how are you going to do it, and when do you know that you’ve done all you can in that circumstance, and be ready to disengage.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely. It sounds like there is maybe something in there around being kind to yourself are not being ashamed of needing to disengage, to make that call.

MICHELLE ROBERTS: Yes.

JACQUIE LEE: Tayla, what about after a disaster? What have you found that support your wellbeing in this line of work?

TAYLA IELLAMO: A lot of the work I do involves working with communities in the medium and the long term after a disaster. And this involves a lot of travel and time away from home to stay for a week in community. When I'm in community, I’ve found that boundaries for me are everything, and really important. So after each day, I might have a small ritual. I take off my badge and I take off my uniform, and that to me signals it is the end of my work day. My work day is done and we do travel as a team and we try to hold each other accountable by not letting our work really bleed into our personal time as well. And I guess on that in terms of team, another thing which  might not seem like it relates to wellbeing, but having a very supportive team culture and I take that as a key responsibility of mine as a leader, makes all the difference because we have worked with each other for so long and we really know each other's stress signs and everyone’s support needs and we are very open in terms of our communication with each other around that. And it  does really help to know that people have your back and I can simply look at someone and they know what that look means.And you want, well, I want to come to work knowing that there is someone that cares that I actually show up to do that job and do that work. So, I find, you know, team is so important in that. Sometimes when I've come back home or when I've come back from the work that I've done, I don't always want to share everything that I've sort of heard or or seen, you know, with my family or my friends. And so I find debriefing and having really upset structured supervision that's not something that can just get cancelled. It is mandatory to do supervision or mentoring or whatever your organisation does.

In these times is not just about venting, which is important and has its place, but more around making meaning of the work that you are doing, similar to what Michelle reflected on. In processing it so you are not carrying it alone. And I guess we need that, we need both the formal supervision and structures, but then we also need that  informal team peer support.

JACQUIE LEE: Thanks, Tayla. Some great ideas, insights in there. I am curious, Sarnia and Michelle, do you have any rituals of your own? I wonder as well if our audience have any rituals they might like to share in the I find that team is so important in that. chat. Because I have definitely heard...

SARNIA RALSTON: I was thinking about how, you know, just staying really grounded, being mindful of knowing how your body feels in a regulated, calm state, and being able to recognise when it is not. So, mine is definitely running and cooking, just those really slow down things where I can earth and ground and go outside and have a walk if possible. And 100%, self-care. Turn off social media and media. It is a great thing to do, at times, even though you need to stay in the loop. You can find yourself obsessing, like what is happening now? What's the update? So, just switch off.

MICHELLE ROBERTS: I would like to say when I was doing this work seven days a week, having a bath was the best third space - a processing space, a transition space for me. And there was this sort of metaphor or symbolism of that of washing away the day and then coming out refreshed and me and the family all ready for whatever the next task is. But fundamental to my own wellbeing, I think, is to make time to pause, reflect and digest. I use the term digest as a understanding and making meaning, as Tayla indicated, of what the experience has been.But also to link in with that known part about rest and digest as part of a parasympathetic nervous system activation rather than the fight or flight that we are often in when we are in the moment of doing the work. So, it is a very conscious transition to slow it all down, take a breath, think about it and then pop it aside and move into the next phase of the day.

JACQUIE LEE: Sarnia, you mentioned earlier having conversations with your kids in that preparedness stage. Thinking about all of the phases of disaster, particularly afterwards, what kinds of conversations can disaster support workers have with their children and loved ones to support their wellbeing? And what is important for workers to keep in mind during those conversations?

SARNIA RALSTON: I think just not forgetting that our children and families pick up so much more than our words say, and that we need to be open and honest from an age-appropriate lens. Like Tayla said, not sharing every detail but acknowledging something is happening. Giving children the space to ask questions or share their feelings on their experience or what they are seeing from us. Being open and honest, saying things like, "I have got some really important work to do right now and it is making me feel a bit tired..." or, you know, whatever that might sound like for you in your child's development stage. You know, things like "post-disaster, things might be a little bit different for a while but we have a plan. We are all safe, We are together. When I’m not,what would help you to feel safe?"

As an adult, remembering for our children that their experience of safety is different to what an adult might conceptualise. They need to feel safe in order to be safe. From our adult mind we often think that a child is safe if we put structures and systems in place, but that does not necessarily help them to feel safe. So, hearing from their voice around what helps them to feel safe, we have a beautiful kit we use at NAPCAN and share with communities and it just really elicits the voices of children in their own individual experience. So, I just always try and remember that our kids, my kids, take emotional cues from us. So when we are calm and clear they feel more secure. And also, check in with our other loved ones around us - ur partner or family, you know, our extended ecosystem. And checking in and letting them know what is going on for us in whatever’s appropriate as a way of communicating that. And checking in on how they are going as well, just strengthening our community, our internal and external communities, can really support us in our conversations.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely, thank you, Sarnia. We have come to the Live Q&A portion of today's webinar. If you have a question that you would like to submit to the panel, we will be doing a recorded Q&A after this as well. So, please add that via the question function. I've got a question here around looking after First Nations workers' wellbeing. It says, "How much work has been put into looking after First Nations workers given that a lot of us have lived experience and we are still working in community when we are clocked off the timesheet?" Michelle, I don't know if you have come across much in that, on that topic in the research that you have done?

MICHELLE ROBERTS: I have come across some readings and I would not say it is an area of my expertise at this point in time. I would suggest, if this is an area you want to find out more about then army Williams is doing some beautiful work in that space. My own work with colleagues that are First Nations people, and Jacquie you had proposed a question I know around multicultural workers and potentially marginalise workers, and I reflected on that and I thought it was quite an interesting question from the perspective that I would expect that as a manager, or a leader, or as a colleague that I would have a good understanding of the strengths and vulnerabilities that my colleagues bring to the workspace all those people I manage bring to the workspace. And that might be the exposures they have had previously, including the intergenerational exposures, experience of colonisation, refugee status, all of those things, I think I would want to be part of, as Royal Far Western and Tayla and Sarah in the video say, demonstrate that collective decision about how the team operates and what do people bring to the situation and what are strengths and vulnerabilities and how you can mitigate the risks in all of that? But it is all done in consultation with the workers as part of the organisation. It is not specific to our Indigenous colleagues and workers but I think they are good fundamental principles to consider.

JACQUIE LEE: Thanks, Michelle. Tayla, I am wondering, how can a multi-disciplinary approach support disaster workers wellbeing?

TAYLA IELLAMO: I find multi-disciplinary work really powerful and on the team that we have, we are a multi-disciplinary allied health team and I find this is helpful not just for the community but actually, for the wellbeing of the team itself because it brings diversity in skills. It brings like a shared load. No one profession can meet the needs of communities after a disaster so when you work with different disciplines, you are less isolated in trying to carry the emotional and practical demands. You have also got others to consult with, to lean on, to reflect with, to learn from. Plus, you are not stretched too thin. I have found that working in communities where we do have educators and family services and counsellors and community leaders all coming together and all collaborating, it means you have a shared understanding, reduces the duplication, which is one of the greatest areas for for communities, shared emotional labour, and actually better collective care as well. It means that people can trust each other, they can reflect together, and it is that shared responsibility to, I guess, build resilience, not just as a team or a community, but individuals as well.

JACQUIE LEE: Thanks Tayla, that makes sense. Michelle, you mentioned that you have been working in this area for 40 years, what have you found helpful in maintaining your own sense of hopefulness during a disaster and how as I benefited your work with children and families?

MICHELLE ROBERTS: Gosh, isn't it a funny time in the geopolitical space to be thinking about hopefulness? I was thinking about the need to actually get my hopefulness all out of the cupboard and give it a polish because it is feeling a bit tarnished at the moment. But I think being able to have longevity in this role is about everything that has been said today. You know, the self-care, the systems that we work in, if there is an experience of dissonance between how I do the work and need to do the work with how my organisation expects me to do the work, then I don't do that work with that organisation. I can't tolerate that mismatch of my values in that space. I can tolerate it for a short period, but I know it does me harm. We have not spoken about moral injury but it is a relatively new concept that we are getting more information about. Again, something starting with military and move to general population and there was a wonderful article in The Conversation this week talking about moral injury in teachers. And I really found that I could identify with the discussion of that piece, so another thing I recommend you talk about.

I have been better and worse at my self-care. And I have often been a leader in doing the work in this area, so I have not necessarily had immediate peers around me to provide me with the feedback of, "You are losing it Michelle, pull back." Or, "I can see how tired you are, you are running on empty, stop now." And I have had to rely on my family to do that or my very very trusted friends who will actually grab me by my jacket and say, "Look at yourself, what is going on here?" And sometimes you need that. We really get so into the pattern. In saying that, I have walked through the water with everyone and I know I am pretty wet in lots of areas. I do not think you can do hard work like this without feeling and showing the marks of that work and that can be a positive and that can be a struggle at times.

So it is actually exactly what my lovely colleagues on the panel have been saying, "You walk the talk." You tell people to do this in your advice, why aren't you doing it for yourself? And yet, the hardest time to do the self-care is when you most need to do it. So you always make it part of your regular practice so it is a habit rather than something additional you have to do. That is what I have learnt in that time.

JACQUIE LEE: Absolutely. That is great advice for any context, right? Not just disasters. For those watching, there is a definition of moral injury in the handouts section as well, if you are not familiar with the term.

Thank you so much to Michelle, Tayla, and Sarnia for joining us today. That hour has just flown by. I feel like we could do several webinars just on this topic. It has been a pleasure hearing from you all.

Thank you everyone for joining us today. And to those who are watching the recording. And thank you to the AIFS communication team, Child and Family Evidence and Evaluation team for their hard work and pulling today's event together.

You can subscribe to the newsletter is to be notified about the recording when it is available. And just a reminder, there will be a feedback survey that pops up after this event concludes and we would really appreciate your feedback and ideas for future events.

Finally, our next webinar with CFCA will not be until August, but in an exciting development in the webinar space, AIFS is launching a new on-demand webinar program next week which will run until the end of the year. This program will feature 8 of the most popular webinars that we've had over the past 2 years, including some that were  produced in collaboration with Emerging Minds. This initiative comes after conversations with people in the sector who’ve said that they can sometimes struggle to find time for professional development, including attending webinars. So, please keep an eye out in your inbox for the program and for more information on how to register and watch this on demand offering.

Just a reminder as well, if you're watching live, we would do a follow-up Q&A with our panellists after this that will be recorded and added onto the webinar recording. So, please do keep an eye out for that in your inbox because there are so many more questions to go through.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Take care and we look forward to seeing you again at our next webinar with CFCA in August.

Extended Q&A

JACQUIE LEE: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the extended Q&A for our webinar Wellbeing for Workers Supporting Children and Families After a Disaster.

I would like to welcome back our panelists, Sarnia Ralston, Tayla Iellamo and Michelle Roberts. Thanks for joining us.

Sarnia, I'll start off with you. We know that from research that social support and connection are some of the biggest protective factors for mental health and wellbeing, especially during times of stress. But we also often hear that people are hesitant to reach out for support when they know that others in their networks are also going through tough times. What approaches and resources might help individuals to overcome this hesitancy?

SARNIA RALSTON: Thanks, Jacquie. I'm definitely aware of the hesitancy and reluctance to reach out for supports, and I think from a worker perspective, but also bringing my own perspective in, an understanding of why is it that people aren't wanting willing to wanting to reach out for support? And when we can understand the reasons and potential reasons why it can help us in our approaches and the way that we frame our supports.

So, I know firsthand I myself did not want to appear vulnerable. I felt like I had a role to play where I needed to be available and present and skilled and confident in what I was offering community. So therefore, if I sought help or appeared vulnerable, it somehow, in my mind, impacted my credibility in the space of supporting people.

So stepping back from that, and as a worker trying to understand why somebody might not be wanting to connect and seek support. When we understand that vulnerability, we can really reframe the way that we tune in and offer supports. There was research done I believe in Queensland around, why is it that people aren't seeking support? And often the research found that -and this wasn't in disaster support, it was, I believe, a QFCC, family's research support. 

But looking at, when people feel that they're judged or vulnerable, they are less likely to reach out for support. But those same people reported that if somebody had have noticed and tuned in to what they needed and come from a framing perspective of, hey, I've noticed, this experience is happening for you. Can I offer up this? Can I offer up supports, etc.? they were more likely and willing to take on that help. So I think if we walk beside people and just be really mindful that we might be the professionals in a space of, offering help and support. But to look around us, to our colleagues, our teams, our organisations and other organisations and just check in. “How are you? I noticed you're a part of this experience as well. And is there anything we can do from our organisation to help you in your organisation” , and really normalise help seeking and help accepting. And, that can be a really great step to breaking down barriers.

JACQUIE LEE: Yeah. Thanks, Sarnia. That's fantastic advice.

In the video, Chris mentioned the importance of self-monitoring for wellbeing. Tayla, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this as an OT and what strategies might be helpful for workers.

TAYLA IELLAMO: Thanks, Jacquie. and thinking back to that video, I do really resonate with Chris, and I find I also need to move my body to stay balanced. But as a OT, I think about wellbeing and I find a helpful frame to think about wellbeing in terms of nervous system regulation and using that lens, or using the window of tolerance concept as well. So it's not just about coping. Like Chris said, it's about asking where am I functioning within my window? And potentially how wide is my window at this time where I'm about to go in and respond? Am I overwhelmed? Am I shut down, or am I actually able to function meaningfully and move through those stresses that I might come across? Chris spoke about having times to check in with yourself. And one of the things that we suggest to educators in schools is to support students with a morning check-in. This could be a 0 to 5 rating. It could be a thumbs up and thumbs down. And we did that as a panel when we first started this. So this is something as workers, we may also find helpful to check in with ourselves. But to build some self-monitoring skills, it might be helpful to think about it in terms of the 3 phases.

So, some proactive things you can do might be accessing training, accessing mentoring or accessing that peer support. And that mentoring and supervision aimed to be reflective, to really enable you to tune in to your responses. And where in your body do you feel activated. And I find it less about naming a mood or a feeling and more about okay, yes, I feel my heart racing or I found my voice went shaky or my neck muscles feel tight, or maybe I started to feel myself react unconsciously rather than responding. But then maybe during the work, whether it's whether that's in disaster recovery or responding in a crisis, I find simple in the moment strategies really helpful. Things like building in a pause before you're about to respond. Things like being aware of your breathing and really ensuring that your exhales are shorter than your inhale. Potentially reducing some of the sensory input around you when possible. Things like noise reducing earplugs are great at this. Things like squeezing your hands together or squeezing your fists. Ensuring sleep is prioritised, and that's a non-negotiable of protecting your sleep. Even having, you know, a fidget or something like I've got blu-tack at the moment. So keeping a fidget on you, on your keys, on your lanyard, or even just in your pocket so you can access these things and that'll really support you in the moment.

But then afterwards, I find it's mostly about processing, acknowledging the impact of that event or the work, allowing time to debrief and reconnect with your family or reconnect with your team members as well.

So, like Chris was saying in the video,  it isn't just about whether you're coping, but how your, body and brain are actually managing that stress.

JACQUIE LEE: Yeah. Thanks, Tayla. We love practical strategies in these kinds of webinars. You mentioned there, making sure you're, I think you said making sure your exhalations are shorter than your inhalations, but I wasn't sure if you meant the other way around. I've heard…

TAYLA IELLAMO: Longer exhalations. Longer. Great. Yes, yes. Okay, I got that wrong. So breathing in for 3 or 4 and breathing out for 7.

JACQUIE LEE: Amazing. Thank you. Sorry. I just wanted to double check. Okay. Thanks.

You also mentioned that, like, some classroom strategies in there, which, transitions quite nicely to my next question for Michelle. We talked in the main webinar conversation about some ways Royal Far West has supported workers wellbeing, but I know that you have a lot of experience working in the education space. And so I wondered what you've found. Works well for supporting, workers wellbeing in the disaster context in that particular sector.

Michelle Roberts: Yeah, it's such a good question, and I would like to say I've got the perfect algorithm to hand over here, but I really do think that we always need to come into a context in this work and appraise the situation. What's happened, what's been the experience. So I look at this from two perspectives. One, I have spent time working as a school psychologist and going into schools across the state and providing support for the workers, and how I look after myself and my team when we do that.

I, you know, have some tips that I would say be prepared. You know, make sure that before you go into the context, you know, the where, why and how, and you have gone down mental pathways yourself of - what am I likely to hear? What am I likely to see? What do I think are the friction points within the school community that will be raised, and how can I best help with that? School communities are like any community. They have their own culture and they can be different from the school 5 seconds down the road. And so, I need to be able to get a handle on what am I walking into that's protective for me. It also means I'm more effective in my work for that school community as well. I need to be physically organised. I don't know if I'm going to be there for 10 minutes, 10 hours a week, a month, whatever. And so I need to make sure that I feel like I've got the equipment I need. 

I've got the tools I need, you know, am I going to be sitting on the floor with the preppies and doing some play therapy around what's been going on? Am I going to be sitting with a principal who is so overwhelmed that they're hugging me and I've got their nose all over my shoulder as a consequence? And, you know, you just don't know where the dayis going to go with those circumstances. And so the way I am prepared for it is how I'm dressed, that I've got snacks with me so I can look after my own physiological needs, that I know that I'll need toilet breaks, that I will need to tell everyone else that I can't do the cognitive assessment I was going to do that day because I'm responding to a critical incident in a school. All of those sort of practical things. 

And I need to know what my role is. And am I going in there to hear the story first off, and back up the leadership in their response? Am I going in to work with the families? Am I looking after a grade because I have a teacher background? It's not unusual for the teacher to say, “I don't know how to do this, and I'm just going to step out for a minute.” Can you talk to the kids about this? And I need to be able to change my mindset really quickly for that from a perspective of being an educator. Or I might be a school chaplain supporting the staff, or I might be the school psychologist for that school or the guidance officer. I am part of that community, as well as being looked to as someone who can provide the support, I already can tick off that.

I know certain aspects about the school and what's happened and how it's unfolding, and where the vulnerabilities or the strengths are. We have to acknowledge the vulnerabilities, but we want to work from the strength space all the time. And my own self-care, and that is everything that we've already spoken about.

I try and be practical. I try to be targeted. I try to look after myself. I model and walk the talk of self-care for my colleagues. I support leadership where they need it, and I encourage the sense of control to bring back structure and control to what is a chaotic situation in the beginning. That's controlling myself. It's assisting others in their own self-control of their physiological and psychological responses. But it's also bringing back predictability to the school routine so that people feel assured that there is a step forward. We've got a plan, we're enacting the plan, and we're safe, both psychologically and in physical reality.

Tayla, you do a lot of work in schools, too. Did you want to add anything?

TAYLA IELLAMO: Yeah. Thanks, Michelle.

I was thinking, as you were talking around that, that the predictability of routine and how core it is for teachers to feel a sense of control over their day, but also ensuring that their classrooms can get back to having routine as quickly as possible.

But the other thing that sort of jumped out to me, as you were talking, was for educators and school leaders really to be kind to themselves and sort of reduce the pressure on themselves and even reduce their expectation, because you've got a class of students that has also been affected by a disaster. And what we know in the immediate aftermath of disaster, when we're returning to school, is that students’ ability to learn is affected. It's going to be impacted. They're going to struggle to pay attention. You're probably going to see behaviors in students that weren't presenting with those behaviors before.

So, what we really need to do is increase the wellbeing supports and just at that time reduce the demands on learning, which for teachers can just be a helpful reframe of not feeling the pressure of trying to get back to the curriculum straight away. Because in those moments, the students’ ability to learn is really affected. So be gentle on yourselves as well.

MICHELLE ROBERTS: That's fantastic. And I want to pick up on that from the perspective that just as the kids have trouble with their learning because they're processing the experience, they're potentially hypervigilant. It's hard to focus and attend. So are the educators in the same situation. And it's been a long standing bug bear for me that the tension of the system is that we need to get schools up and running again after a disaster quickly. And I think that comes at a cost to the teachers who haven't had time to do the rest and digest that we've been talking about of their own experience, knowing that their own families are safe or their needs are being met processing what's happened - let alone then how am I going to guide my class through this experience and deliver the curriculum as well, you know. And so there's all these competing demands, and I know that in other countries, they often clearly give educators a block of time to do their own business around this. Then they have professional learning for the educators around their responses and their students and school community responses. And then they come back to school as teachers.

So I don't know how we juggle the wider system thing of having kids safe at school in a disaster and parents having the time to do the busy work that needs to happen after a disaster and look after the mental health and wellbeing of our educators in that context.

JACQUIE LEE: Thanks, Michelle, and thanks, Tayla. Some great insights and also some interesting reflections. I feel like we could do a whole webinar just on that, that one topic.

Thank you to both of you and to Sarnia, who had to duck out to her next meeting. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to everyone who's watching. Don't forget to look out for that email on the CFCA on-demand webinar program, which will, depending on when you're watching this, may already have hit your inboxes or will be coming through in the next week. And we look forward to seeing you again at our next webinar with CFCA in August.

Thanks, everyone. Take care.