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PsychoSocial Supports
During
Natural Disasters
Presentation for Alberta Environment
Mark Harasymuk
Director (Health) Disaster Recovery Program
Psychosocial supports:
1. Reduce vulnerability among Albertans directly and indirectly impacted
2. Foster resilience among Albertans directly or indirectly impacted
3. Promote community resilience through prevention, early intervention, and health promotion
What are “Psychosocial Supports”?
“Psychosocial” refers to the psychological / mental impacts of an emergency.
2
Community
Wellness &
Resiliency
Mental Health
Services & Support
Psychosocial Recovery
2016 Wildfires – Largest Evacuation in AB History
State of Emergency
• Province of Alberta declares a State of Emergency (SOE) in the Regional Municipality
of Wood Buffalo on May 4, 2016
–Only the second time in Alberta’s history for a provincial state of
emergency (first time was during the 2013 Southern Alberta flooding
for the Town of High River)
–No outlined criteria for determination, just an individual assessment
• Gives extraordinary powers to the Minister responsible for Emergency Management,
including:
– “provide for the restoration of essential facilities and the distribution
of essential supplies and provide, maintain and co-ordinate
emergency medical, welfare and other essential services in any part
of Alberta”
Chief Medical Officer of Health –
Responsibilities in an Emergency
• The Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health (OCMOH) provides public health
expertise to support health surveillance, population health and disease control
initiatives on issues of public health importance.
• As Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Grimsrud was able to make
recommendations to all levels of government about evacuation centers and re-
entry requirements.
• These recommendations were in place to ensure public safety.
• Dr. Grimsrud and her team worked closely with Alberta Health Services and the
municipality to evaluate the risks of returning and the challenges with evacuees
being displaced.
• Dr. Grimsrud spent a lot of time updating all levels of government. She also
dedicated a lot of time to attending town hall meetings and responding to
concerned residents.
• Dr. Grimsrud reviewed and approved comprehensive re-entry plans developed by
the municipality to ensure the plan was complete and considered vulnerable
populations.
Alberta HealthAddiction and Mental Health – Emergency Coordination Centre (AMH – ECC)
• Alberta Health activates internal EOC on May 4th, 2016 and sends representative to the
Provincial Operations Centre to coordinate provincial health response and resources
–Key Areas of focus for Alberta Health include: • Health of First Responders
• Health of Evacuees
• Environmental Health Assessment for re-entry
• Assessment and resumption activities for critical health infrastructure
• Facilitation of Health funding to urgent recovery initiatives
• Alberta Health also activates Addiction and Mental Health Emergency Coordinating
Committee (AMH – ECC)
– Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
– Cross-Ministry and partners engaged in assessing psychosocial health in response and
recovery
– Included: Canadian Red Cross, Disaster Not-for-Profits, First Nation Health and Benefits,
Education partners
•
A Coordinated Response – AMH-ECC
Alberta Health Services
Alberta Health
Services –
Response
Highlights
• Research shows that people recover better after a disaster if they feel safe and connected to other people; if they have social, physical and emotional support, and if they feel like they can help themselves and their community
• There were several reception centres established across the province
Reception Centres
Numbers provided immediately after the fire were expected to climb
Beacon Hill 70% of homes lost
Abasand 50% of homes lost
Waterways 90% of homes lost
Wood Buffalo – 30+ homes lost
After the Fire
Addiction & Mental Health, Wellness Counselling or both?
Adapted services, new name, important partnerships
Re-entry
Mobile Urgent Care Centre, Fort Mash
This is the only time this has been deployed in Canada
Considerations:
• Matching responders to needs
• Training and support for deployed staff
Psychosocial Supports
Referrals to Mental Health
• Early contacts: brief contacts; check-ins; follow up with known clients and support to first responders
• Shifted to more typical contacts over time
• From May 10, 2016 to Feb. 10, 2017 – 27,600 client contacts reported by AMH in Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo
Reasons for Contact
Factors Precipitating Contact with
Mental Health
Outcome of Contact
Inpatient Admissions
• Slightly fewer inpatient admissions for primary diagnoses related to mental health
• Rise in proportion of inpatient admissions due to mental health diagnoses since the fire
• Slight increase in admissions for substance-related disorders, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, cognitive disorders etc.
• Increase in males admitted, decrease in females admitted
Next Steps – Alberta’s Next Response (proposed)
Provincial Psychosocial Emergency Strategic Committee (PPESC) that will:
• Coordinate stakeholder activities
• Communicate, update, and clarify roles
• Build intersectoral links prior to disasters
• Use existing structures (e.g. Incident Command Structure) to increase collaboration
and reduce duplication of efforts.
Goal:
To ensure that Alberta has adequate supports in place to mitigate the psychosocial
impact of disaster.
Development of a Psychosocial Recovery Framework:
Six Focus Areas
The combined efforts outlined within this framework aim to:
“Promote mental health, wellbeing and resilience, and to intervene early
to prevent mental disorders and addictions”
• Training & Education
• Community Capacity
• Target Populations
• Indigenous Supports
• Communication
• Monitoring and Evaluation
Municipal Affairs – Recovery Operations (concept)
GoA trend towards increased coordination in recovery
• The ‘4 Pillar’ Approach
PEOPLE ECONOMY
ENVIRONMENT RECONSTRUCTION
Recovery Missions - draft
• Recovery Missions are cross-ministry groups that can be activated during and
after a disaster as needed to provide support to ministries and track information
related to specific recovery issues/activities.
• There are 6 missions that are made up of recovery-related activities.
1. Social Services
2. Health & Psychosocial
3. Housing
4. Economy
5. Natural & Cultural Resources
6. Reconstruction & Safety
• When activated, these missions improve collection and collation of information
to address recovery issues more efficiently.
• Mission groups will also allow for more collaboration between partners in the
GoA who may work on similar recovery issues.
Questions?
Mark Harasymuk
Director (Health) Disaster Recovery Program
Addiction and Mental Health Branch
Health Service Delivery
Alberta Health
780 422 6557