For so many people who find themselves in recovery leadership roles, the experience can be daunting and lonely. Disasters affect so many parts of our communities that often the recovery work people find themselves doing is an overlay and extension to their normal roles.

Wouldn’t it be nice just to be able to talk and get some advice from someone who has been where you are? Who ‘gets it’?

That’s the whole basis of the Disaster Recovery Advisors and Mentors Australia (DRAMA) network.

In this edition of #22 for ’22 I look at what is sometimes referred to as the ‘bible’ of disaster recovery in Australia – the AIDR Community Recovery handbook.

We know that disasters can affect every single facet of our lives, so the task of recovering at both an individual and community level is huge. We also know that there are things that communities can do ahead of time to help reduce the burden of these impacts and make recovery a bit smoother.

In the not so distant past, there was a prevailing idea that children and young people weren’t affected by traumatic events, and that the best course of action was to not mention it to them for fear of upsetting them. We now know that this is not the case, and both research and practice have done a 180 turn on the best approaches to support children after a big upheaval.

In this edition of #22 for ’22 I look at the Emerging Minds portal and how it can help us do our work better.

Clear, relevant, timely communications in post disaster settings remains a challenge in many communities. In this edition of #22 for ’22 I look at the Red Cross Communicating in Recovery resource, first developed in 2009 and now in its second edition.

You know how pretty much everyone has an album that was a turning point in their lives, the one that connected with them on some profound level? It was the moment where they stopped having the music their parents played be their main influence and started their own journey of finding other stuff that was meaningful to them? For me, that was Hi Fi Way by You Am I, introduced to me by one of my best friend’s older brother in 1995. It blew my Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, Rolling Stones and Van Morrison listening mind.

But I had that moment in the disaster world too. It wasn’t an album, it was a book called ‘Everything in Its Path’ by Kai T Erikson.

After a disaster there can be a strange balance between the curiosity of wanting to know how things are for people against the concern of not wanting to pry or make things awkward by asking the wrong question.

Thankfully, the ABC did it for us a few years ago. In the last episode in series four of the magnificent show ‘You Can’t Ask That’, the team did an episode on disaster survivors.

Accessing professional development for disaster recovery roles isn’t always super easy, but there is a lot of stuff out there if you know where to hunt. In this edition of #22 for ’22 I take a look at the Australian Institute of Disaster Resilience Recovery Matters webinar series.

This edition of #22 for ‘22 is not a disaster recovery resource per se, but it is a gateway tool to a bunch of research that can help us in our roles.

Everyone knows how to use Google (although according to this piece, most of us are only using a few of the many functions that are available). But lots of people don’t know about Google’s nerdy cousin: Google Scholar.

Are you interested in learning more about Indigenous perspectives of disaster recovery but wondering how to get started? If you’re not yet across the work of Bhiamie Williamson, you’re about to wonder why you waited so long.

Are you someone who is working or volunteering in a disaster recovery role and feel like you’re a bit out of your depth when it comes to mental health impacts? Or maybe you’re a GP or a mental health practitioner working with disaster affected patients and would like an evidence informed brush up?

In this edition of #22 for ’22 I point you in the direction of your new favourite disaster mental health resource.

Are you someone who knows that you need to know more about the impacts of disasters but are a bit overwhelmed figuring out how to tackle it? Never fear – in this edition of #22 for ’22 I have a suggestion that requires you to just watch an awesome TV series that has an absolute banger of a soundtrack.

We all know that there are people with lived experience and professional expertise in the disaster field that have excellent knowledge we can learn from. For most of us though, the task of trawling through back catalogues of work can feel both daunting and time consuming.

If only there were summaries of what these people think is important, right?

Are you new to working in disaster recovery and are wondering if there is a way to cram a huge amount of information in a very short space of time? Well, my friend, have I got something for you.

Hurricane Katrina was a watershed moment for how we understand the aftermath of disasters. For many people, this was the event that convinced them that the concept of a ‘natural disaster’ isn’t a thing – a natural hazard might exist, but when a hazard becomes a disaster, the forces in play are much more complex.

I am lucky that I get to be a part of a lot of disaster related projects. One that was a stand out for me was being involved in the After the Disaster podcast, which just passed it’s one year anniversary of being out in the world.

The events of September 11 2001 are some of the most widely covered events in modern history. Even if you were born after this time, you would be familiar with the life-changing, gut wrenching footage and will have heard many of the stories of the day itself.

Folks, I’d like to introduce (or reacquaint) you to the world of Daniel Aldrich’s research. He’s a political scientist based at North-Eastern University in the United States, and frequently blows people’s minds with his work.

By the time that you need to know if guidelines or advice for how to manage temporary memorials exist, in most cases it’s too late. Or at least you’re in a bit of a pickle that might have been avoided if you had known they existed.

Lessons Learned by Community Recovery Committees of the 2009 Victorian bushfires: Advice we offer to communities impacted by disaster is a reasonably short document that summarises the hard-won lessons from community leaders following the 2009 Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires.