Now showing 1 - 10 of 29
  • Publication
    The 2019-2020 bushfires and COVID-19: The ongoing impact on the mental health of people living in rural and farming communities
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, 2021-02) ; ; ; ; ;
    Coffey, Yumiko
    ;
    It is well established that bushfires and other natural disasters have long‐term effects on the mental health of affected individuals and communities (Black Dog Institute, 2020). These effects can last for years as demonstrated following the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria, Australia: one fifth (21.9%) of the highest impacted communities reported mental health symptoms at the five‐year follow‐up (Gibbs et al. 2013). The recent 2019–2020 catastrophic bushfires in Australia was nothing like we have experienced before (Morton 2019), resulting in unprecedented devastation across much of the country with current estimates suggesting 14.5 million acres have been affected (White & Gilbert 2020) and numerous lives, houses, and livelihoods impacted. The 2019–2020 bushfires in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania caused much loss of life and property, environmental destruction, and community disturbance (Flanagan 2020), leaving an estimated one third of Australians now affected by the bushfires (Morton 2020). The last month of summer in the Northern Hemisphere has resulted in bushfires affecting and almost destroying small towns in the USA (Newburger, 2020). With predictions that globally, temperatures will continue to increase with more frequent heatwaves and less rainfall (CSIRO 2018), bushfires are likely to be a more frequent event, and the consequences of them being more widespread.
  • Publication
    Family violence and COVID-19: Increased vulnerability and reduced options for support
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, 2020-08) ; ; ; ;

    Family violence refers to threatening or other violent behaviours within families that may be physical, sexual, psychological, or economic, and can include child abuse and intimate partner violence (Peterman et al. 2020, van Gelder et al. 2020). Family violence during pandemics is associated with a range of factors including economic stress, disaster-related instability, increased exposure to exploitative relationships, and reduced options for support (Peterman et al. 2020). Due to the social isolation measures implemented across the globe to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, people living in volatile situations of family violence are restricted to their homes. Social isolation exacerbates personal and collective vulnerabilities while limiting accessible and familiar support options (van Gelder et al. 2020). In many countries, including Australia, we have already seen an increase in demand for domestic violence services and reports of increased risk for children not attending schools (Duncan, 2020), a pattern similar to previous episodes of social isolation associated with epidemics and pandemics (Boddy, Young & O'Leary 2020). In Australia, as stay-at-home orders came into force, the police in some parts of the country reported a 40% drop in crime overall, but a 5% increase in domestic abuse call-outs (Kagi 2020). At the same time in Australia, Google reported a 75% increase in Internet searches relating to support for domestic abuse (Poate 2020).

  • Publication
    Pandemic-related behaviours and psychological outcomes; A rapid literature review to explain COVID-19 behaviours
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, 2020-12) ; ; ; ;
    COVID-19 spread rapidly causing widescale loss of life and economic devastation. Efforts to contain it have resulted in measures such as closing of borders and restrictions around travel, social activities and attending places of worship. We conducted this rapid review to systematically examine, synthesize, and critically appraise the available evidence on the relationship between pandemic-related behaviours and psychological outcomes. The methods were compliant with the PRISMA guidelines. The review was preregistered with PROSPERO (Registration #: CRD42020181576). A literature search was conducted from January 2010 to April 2020 using ProQuest, Web of Science, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, SAGE Journals, and CINAHL. Of 3844 articles identified, we included 11 quantitative articles in the final synthesis, representing data from 32, 049 individual respondents from eight countries. We identified three pandemics (COVID-19, MERS-CoV, Influenza A(H1N1) pdm09) as well as several psychological outcomes including anxiety, mental distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anger. We also identified several behaviours during pandemics and categorized them into protective, preparedness, and perverse behaviours. The review showed that even though there is limited evidence regarding pandemic-related behaviours and psychological outcomes, the current findings showed that the psychological outcomes significantly impacted on the adoption of the pandemic-related behaviours. Given the negative effects of psychological outcomes on behaviours, we recommend that mental health professionals should promote mental health support to people exhibiting psychological distress resulting from similar events in the future. Also, we recommend that future research should test the hypothesized effects of pandemics and psychological outcomes on behaviour change.
  • Publication
    The mental health impact of bushfires on community members missing in the Final Report of the NSW Bushfire Inquiry recommendations
    The Report of the NSW Bushfire Inquiry into the 2019-20 bushfires faIled to recognise the mental health impacts on the people in affected communities. The 2019-20 bushfires are considered one of the worst recorded in Australian history. The inquiry rightly identified the significant mental health impact of the bushfires on the firefighters and first responders. These individuals are exposed to significant hazards in their attempts to protect the land and communities. Their health and well-being is of the upmost importance. The disappointment is that the report includes several references to the physical health effects to communities exposed to the smoke from bushfires, with no reference to the mental health impact on those that have lost loved ones, their homes and/or their livelihood.
  • Publication
    Preparedness for viral respiratory infection pandemic in residential aged care facilities: A review of the literature to inform post-COVID-19 response
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2021) ; ; ;
    Warsini, Sri
    ;

    Aims and objectives: To examine what was known about disaster preparedness in residential care and to consider this in the light of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

    Background: Care homes provide long-term care to vulnerable, frail older people, as well as to young people with profound disabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the residential care sector has been seriously affected in many parts of the world and has exposed major flaws and vulnerabilities in infection control and other processes that have resulted in considerable loss of life of residents of these facilities.

    Design: Discursive paper informed by a systematic literature. Review was carried out in line with PRISMA reporting guidelines. The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO on 2020 [CRD42020211847].

    Results: The review identified six papers meeting inclusion criteria across care residential facilities in different countries. Several prevention and mitigation strategies were identified to manage and reduce the spread and severity of viral respiratory infection pandemics. These strategies include isolation, restriction of movement, personal protective and hygienic measures, health education and information sharing, monitoring and coordination, and screening and treatment. Preparedness strategies identified were contingency planning such as reporting/communication, leadership, human resource, insurance, occupational health and resource availability. The prevention/mitigation and preparedness strategies helped to achieve decline in disease severity, reduced prevalence, reduced spread of the disease, improved readiness criteria, resource usefulness and increased intervention acceptability. This paper presents a conceptual framework exploring the interconnectedness of preparedness and prevention/ mitigation strategies and associated outcomes. We discuss areas of concern in the context of workforce employment patterns in the sector. Concerns related to the unintended consequences of strategies placed on aged care facilities, which may worsen mental health outcomes for residents, are discussed.

    Conclusions: Persons in residential care settings are at greater risk of infection dur-ing a pandemic, and therefore, strict measures to protect their safety are warranted. However, they are also a group who already experience social isolation and so any measures involving restrictions to visiting and social interaction, particularly over the longer term, must be accompanied by strategies to mitigate potential loneliness and mental health sequelae arising from long-term pandemic restrictions.

    Relevance to clinical practice:

    • Though there was evidence of activity in preparedness for disasters within the residential care sector, various contextual factors affecting the sector were clearly not adequately considered or addressed in pre- pandemic disaster planning, particularly in the areas of staff movements between care homes and the length of time that social isolation and restriction measures would need to be in place.

    • Future pandemic planning should consider the nature of the workforce model in the care home sector, and factor in strategies to better support the mobile and highly casualised workforce.

  • Publication
    Registered nurses' social media use
    (University of New England, 2021-06-30) ; ;
    The dataset was collected via Qualtrics and explores the social media use of undergraduate nurses in Australia.
  • Publication
    The COVID-19 pandemic and mental health impacts
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, 2020-06) ; ;
    The newly identified novel coronavirus, COVID-19, was first reported in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The COVID-19 virus is now known to belong to the same family as SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which are zoonotic infections thought to have originated from snakes, bats, and pangolins at the Wuhan wet markets (Ji et al. 2020). The virus has rapidly spread across the globe leading to many infected people and multiple deaths (Wang et al. 2020); especially of the elderly and vulnerable (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2020). While efforts to control and limit the spread of the pandemic in the community are quite straight forward to follow, it seems that prejudice and fear have jeopardized the response efforts (Ren et al. 2020).
  • Publication
    COVID-19 and family violence: Is this a perfect storm?
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, 2021-08) ;
    Bradbury Jones, Caroline
    ;
    ; ; ; ;
    Disasters including public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic are known to increase instances of family violence against women, children, and other diverse populations. This paper discusses and provides evidence of disaster-related vulnerability of and violence towards specific groups of people. We argue that the COVID-19 pandemic presents the 'perfect storm' for family violence, where a set of rare circumstances combine, resulting in a significant aggravation of the resulting event. Given the mental health implications of family violence, mental health professionals need to be aware of this issue during the pandemic and ready to assist with the development of strategies to overcome the situation where possible. To provide protection and prevent violence, there is a need to include at-risk groups in disaster response and community planning. Such a plan could involve gender and disaster working groups at the local community, state, and national levels.
  • Publication
    Coping styles and mental health outcomes of community members affected by black summer 2019-20 bushfires in Australia

    The aim of this study was to investigate coping styles, posttraumatic stress, and mental health symptoms among a sample of community members affected by 2019-20 Australian bushfires. Using a convenience sampling approach, an online survey was used to assess a range of coping strategies, posttraumatic stress and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress among the affected community members of Black Summer bushfires. The results revealed that study participants reported moderate symptoms of depression and stress, and severe levels of anxiety. Additionally, participants reported use of both approach and avoidance coping strategies following the bushfire event as well as experiencing symptoms of posttraumatic stress, such as having intrusive thoughts and symptoms of avoidance and hyperarousal. Despite the durability of many individuals, others remain affected by the event and there is evidence there may be longer term mental health consequences of the bushfires for some people. Given these findings, it is imperative that mental health services be readily available for people in the bushfire-affected areas. Mental health nurses have an important role to play in supporting individuals affected by disasters. Awareness of the short- and long-term impacts of disasters on the mental health of people is paramount for mental health nurses.