Fortem Australia - the nation's leading support organisation for first responders and their families - is enhancing firs responder resilience and building capability in disaster-prone regions nationwide.

In this presentation, Fortem Australia will outline how delivering effective mental health, wellbeing and career retention programs bolsters the capacity of first responders, enhancing overall resilience and uplift of communities impacted by disaster.

Additionally, this presentation will outline the strong partnership that Fortem Australia has built with ‘R U OK?,’ ‘StandBy Support After Suicide’, ‘LivingWorks Australia,’ and the ‘University of Canberra,’ uniting to deliver comprehensive in-person supports to bolster the resilience of first responders in disaster-prone regions. The mission of this partnership is to prevent high rates of mental ill-health, enhance wellbeing, decrease suicidality and improve the retention rates of first responders nationwide.

By delivering effective resilience focused services to first responders in communities across the country, Australia will retain their vital disaster management workforce, ensuring they are supported to remain on the frontline in disaster affected communities, performing at their highest potential.

Simultaneously, resilience programs for first responders assist in mitigating against the unsustainable strain placed on the Australian Defence Force (ADF) during domestic deployments to disaster-affected regions. Under this approach, the ADF can dedicate its efforts to fulfilling its paramount responsibility of safeguarding Australia's long-term national security interests against threats on a global scale.

Enhancing the resilience of first responders through effective service delivery and strong partnerships will, in the end, strengthen the ability of communities across the entire nation to effectively address and rebound from interlinked and intensifying disaster occurrences. Placing emphasis on the mental health, wellbeing, and career retention of first responders holds paramount significance at a national level and is critical to the overall success of disaster response and recovery endeavours.