Supporting the Supporters

How do we support those people working hard to support long term recovery often whilst impacted themselves?

This resource website is a great practical guide for those who have a role supporting long term disaster recovery in communities. It is useful in giving overview and detail to support understanding the needs, impetus and necessity to look after yourself and each other through the recovery process. Whilst focusing on workforce it is useful for communities in the planning and establishment of support mechanisms for community-led recovery programs.

The author, Jolie Willis was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study how best to support the workforce resilience of those working in prolonged stress. Jolie is a cognitive scientist (Masters degree in cognitive psychology) specialising in mass disruption and disaster recovery. Her area of interest is how the mind works under prolonged pressure, how we make decisions and how our reactions and behaviours are impacted by stress.

Jolie developed and led the psychosocial recovery programming following the Christchurch earthquakes for New Zealand Red Cross before becoming the National Psychosocial Advisor and led the support for the bereaved families in Christchurch. Jolie has been collating lessons learned from disasters around the world and supporting recovery capacity building and recovery in action.