Disaster Response and Resilience

The Disaster Response and Resilience Research Group (DRR) studies mental health and psychosocial response factors in the context of an all hazards framework. This includes natural disasters, terrorism, pandemic influenza, and broader "slow" disasters, such as drought, climate change, and socio-demographic adversities.
 

Our primary objectives are to promote resilience and effective coping in the face of adversity, and to support the translation of research and expertise into evidence-informed policy, and national and regional service response systems.

Our broad research areas include:

• Modelling population hazard perception to the potential threats of terrorism, pandemic influenza, drought and climate change.
• Population and First Responder preparedness for low probability/high consequence events; such as CBRNE terrorism or accidents, emergency animal diseases and zoonoses.
• Understanding, predicting and influencing protective behaviour; drivers and barriers that link to preparedness, planning, response and compliance and underpin national security and community resilience:
• • public health measures (e.g. vaccination, quarantine)
  • biosecurity (e.g. hygiene, movement control), and
  • gneral emergency planning (e.g. natural, technological, and human-induced disasters and emergencies)
• Children, Families and Adversities
• • burden of disease of childhood mental health adversities and their trajectories into adulthood
  • intervention options for assisting families and children dealing with financial and other adversities
• Policy support, planning, advice and consultancy
• • National disaster mental health co-ordination
• Teaching and Training Initiatives
• • DRR research staff are also involved in teaching through the UWS Masters of Public Health program and education initiatives with mental health professionals in collaboration with NSW Health.