Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

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Examining Victoria’s disaster mental health capacity: towards systematic disaster mental health workforce and service planning

REIFELS, LENNART ( 2013)

Natural disasters increasingly impact on the Victorian population, resulting in greater calls on mental health services and providers of psychosocial support. However, little is known about Victoria’s capacity to respond to the mental health consequences of major natural disasters. It is therefore timely to examine key indicators of Victoria’s disaster mental health service and workforce capacity and to examine the strengths and limitations of current approaches to building such capacity in view of future natural disasters. To this end, the current thesis examined key indicators of, and current approaches to building, Victoria’s disaster mental health service and workforce capacity in the context of the response to Australia’s largest bushfire disaster, the Victorian Black Saturday Bushfires. Through a series of four studies, this thesis investigated strengths and limitations of novel service delivery models and capacity building approaches, and the profile and capacity of the Victorian disaster mental health workforce. Study findings will inform a more strategic approach to disaster mental health workforce and service planning, sustainable capacity building and enhanced provision of best practice mental health support to disaster-affected Victorians in the future.