Background: Communities in rural and regional Australia are more likely than metropolitan communities to experience greater impacts of extreme weather events in a warming and drying climate, with accompanying effects on mental health. Deployment of dedicated mental health disaster response teams is a relatively recent concept within Australian disaster responses, and little is known about the experiences and impacts of these deployments upon either their participants or the local staff in disaster-affected areas.
Aim: To explore the experiences of clinician and management stakeholders involved in a rural/urban collaborative mental health disaster response to the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires in the Snowy Valleys of southern New South Wales (NSW)
Methods: An interpretive qualitative research design, with data collection via semi-structured individual interviews with mental health clinicians and managers from a rural health district and a metropolitan health district involved in a collaborative disaster response to the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires in the NSW Snowy Valleys. Interview transcripts were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Ethics Committee approval was obtained.
Findings: Thematic findings on participant experiences are presented under three organising constructs of ‘before’, ‘during’, and ‘after’ the mental health disaster response. Findings provide an insight into the complexity and emotional labour of mental health disaster response work, from dual perspectives of those who are members of a bushfire-affected community, and those who are responding from outside a bushfire-affected community.
Conclusion: Participant experiences had shared and distinct components before, during and after the mental health disaster response, culminating in profound personal and professional impacts of bearing witness to trauma and resilience in bushfire-affected communities. Participants derived a sense of meaning from the experience of participating in the mental health disaster response, prompting sustained personal and professional reflection for many. These study findings provide important perspectives to inform ongoing planning of disaster response in Australia.