In the early months of 2011 Queensland communities have experienced significant loss and disruption as a result of natural disasters affecting more than 70% of the state. Lessons learned through this experience highlight the essential role of the health and community services in supporting the community during disaster events and throughout the recovery period. However, drawing on national and international research, there is a significant risk that the post-disaster response will focus exclusively on recovery and fail to capture the important role of building community resilience through planning.
In recognition of this risk, the Health and Community Services Workforce Council has engaged in a self-funded initiative to develop a Disaster Management Workforce Planning Guide to support non-government health and community services organisations to plan for future disaster events in conjunction with current recovery efforts.
It is envisaged that the development of this guide will be informed by Australia’s National Disaster Resilience Framework (2009) – a policy framework which recognises the strong community presence of non-government organisations and their enhanced capacity to build community resilience to disaster at a grass-roots level. The concept of disaster management workforce planning is underpinned by the principle that building community resilience to disaster begins with a health and community services workforce that is prepared, ready and able to respond to disaster events in their regions.
HAVE YOUR SAY
In the coming months we hope to have a draft of our Disaster Management Workforce Planning Guide ready for consultation As we are committed to the development of products and services that are relevant, useful and appropriate to the needs of our stakeholders, we would like your feedback.
To express your interest in providing feedback or receiving information on the launch of the Disaster Management Workforce Planning Guide download the Expression of Interest and return the completed form by fax to (07) 3234 0474.
