2018-04-10 S&O Agenda - Attachment 1 to Item 4 - Local Disaster Recovery Subplan

Children and young people
The additional needs of children and youth need to be considered by the Community Welfare
Sub Committee. Considerations include:
 Recognition that children and youth are uniquely vulnerable following an emergency event
   and require targeted and specialised support
 Children are not little adults and should not be managed in the same way as adult population
 There is no one size fits all approach to recovery for children and youth and recovery plans
   must consider the developmental stage of those affected

The importance of family and community support in helping children and young people overcome
the impact of their experiences cannot be overstated. Parent information sessions that provide
advice and information to parents on ways to support their children may be beneficial.

Local schools are key community organisations that can provide support to the younger members
of the community. Engaging with schools and education facilities to gauge the level of impact on
the young people in a community and involving them in development of plans and activities will
assist in ensuring young people are cared for after a disaster.

The Community Welfare Sub Committee should consider providing information to school and
childcare centres perhaps through newsletters that explain the activities and support that are
available to young people and children. While schools are an important conduit to reach young
people and children, consideration must be given to supporting young people after school or
during school holidays or closures. Holiday programs and mobile playgrounds may be useful to
provide suitable activities to children and young people.

Aged
Members of the aged community can be incredibly resilient but in other cases are particularly
vulnerable during a disaster. Their life experiences include events such as wars, the Depression,
bushfires, floods and droughts, which demanded great self-reliant resources, gave them the
strength to deal with unusual circumstances.

People who are older, however, may be isolated, frail, suffering from chronic illness or dependent
on others for transport, meals and self-care. Some older people may have lived in the community
all their lives and suddenly be put in a position of needing to relocate, in addition to losing a
lifetime of memorabilia and familiarity.

The Community Welfare Sub Committee needs to quickly establish who these people are and
where they are located in the community and link them into aged care services that can help
them re-establish a sense of safety and security as quickly as possible. In the same way that
children and youth may be brought together to help them talk about and process their
experiences of the disaster, it may be helpful to organise groups of aged people to get together
and share stories and information.

Culturally and linguistically diverse communities
Non-English speaking people may be especially vulnerable to prolonged impacts following a
disaster by virtue of their inability to communicate well with emergency and relief workers, and
their difficulty in accessing information that helps them to make sense of the event and its
aftermath.

Different cultures approach and react to disasters in different ways. This can potentially cause
tensions in the broader community if these reactions are not understood by others. It may mean
that minority groups in the community can feel left out, marginalised and misunderstood if they
do not understand or cannot relate to the recovery processes put in place by the government and
other organisations. They may also feel unable to express and manage their grief or distress in
their usual ways.




Noosa Local Disaster Recovery Subplan 2018                                                Page 44