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Risks of not supporting the supporters

For the supporter:

Below is a list of risks identified from this research, followed by direct quotes from those who have worked in disaster recovery.

  • Damaged by the experience
  • Worker injury
  • Effects on general health – both short and long term
  • Exhaustion
  • Exacerbation of pre-disaster injuries or health conditions
  • Mental health impacts
  • Eating disorders
  • Decreased energy and vitality
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Feeling they have aged incredibly
  • Weight gain or loss
  • Drug or alcohol abuse
  • Increased smoking
  • Sleep problems – inability to switch off
  • Large chunk of their life where lost a sense of happiness or quality of life
  • Decreased faith in humanity
  • Grief
  • Feeling devalued
  • Bitter disappointment
  • Compassion fatigue
  • Vicarious/secondary trauma
  • Pessimism, cynicism, bitterness
  • Diminished trust and faith in institutions
  • Forgetfulness
  • Anxiety
  • Fear
  • Feeling trapped by community need
  • Feeling torn between competing rolesPoor decision making
  • Anger
  • Depression
  • Lost ability to monitor own expenditure of energy and exhaustion levels
  • Diminished confidence in own abilities
  • Suicide
  • Social isolation
  • Emotionally drained
  • Feeling untrusted
  • Feeling uncared for
  • Relationships suffer – divorce, availability for children, conflict in the family, connection in community
  • Parental guilt
  • Negative impacts for children
  • Intensity of emotional environment leading to affairs and costing marriages
  • Loss of a sense of community
  • Creates a backlog of neglected tasks
  • Unable to do this work in the future – ending or changing career
  • Sacrificed own personal needs and goals leading to extreme disorientation
  • If social supports strained and turn to organization for support which they don’t receive then the worker is as vulnerable and isolated as those they are supporting

The residents

  • Damage to clients
  • Frustration of constant staff turnover
  • Decreased ability to provide support 5 years on
  • Prolonged recovery and the associated impact on wellbeing, quality of life and productivity
  • The people we support begin taking on our stress – worry about us
  • Exacerbated rather than reduced disaster impacts
  • Diminished capacity of community leaders and volunteers affects the glue of communities
  • Diminished community capacity

The team/project/organization

  • Negatively affects organizational mission
  • Brand/reputational
  • Poor decision making
  • Worker attrition
  • Constant change leads to short term thinking
  • Feeling overwhelmed led to prematurely shutting down the program
  • Decreased quality of support
  • Function less effectively
  • Decreased productivity
  • Decreased efficiency
  • Closed thinking
  • Co-dependency, loss of separation, boundary blur
  • Lose connection with the community
  • Workforce has a breaking point
  • Lose your best people
  • The money invested in the program lacks quality
  • Increased sick leave
  • Impacts potential for sourcing future funding
  • Loss of valuable experience and knowledge
  • Inability to recruit
  • Legal liability – failing to meet duty of care
  • Lost connection and loyalty to the organization – a sense of hypocrisy
  • Deteriorated atmosphere/ culture
  • Staff burnout
  • Guilt and worry about the staff
  • Cost of counselling and remedial support costs
  • Decreased resourcing capacity – eg less ability to recruit volunteers
  • Employee and volunteer turnover
  • Constantly inducting new staff, bringing them up to date with the where we are at and why
  • Breach of trust in the community when expectations are not met
  • Loss of community support to organization due to view of how staff are supported
  • Decreased sector resilience and loss of knowledge within the sector as people leave
  • Staff ‘go rogue’ – they implement decisions locally under the radar
  • Reduced capacity for other programs
  • Reduced integrity of the project and reduced likelihood of meeting goals
  • Loss of perspective
  • Team dysfunction
  • Short fuse with the community
  • Diminished energy meets less capacity for consultation and collaboration
  • Withdraw (barricade in office and make themselves unavailable) due to being overwhelmed
  • Loss of volunteers
  • Promotion of burnt out staff infects others with cynicism

Quotes on Risks

The risk to the person is considerable and self-evident. The risk to the organizational reputation is enormous and affects the potential to be able to do this in the future. And damage to the people we are supposed to be supporting when our workers are burnt out, cynical, jaded, tired. The damage is far worse than most other hazards, worse than serving up off food if someone is not faring well in a position influencing the support people get. Kate Brady – Australian Red Cross

I have a Dr Seuss book, which I read to my oldest kids. My youngest Jack was about to turn one at the time of the fires and he was five before I realised I hadn't read him any Dr Seuss books. I had been so preoccupied. The toll is huge. Anon – Kinglake Ranges

It is devastating not to get support. When your lived experience doesn't match up to the structure it feels like your fault. The organization is a touchstone and if it doesn't recognize what your experience actually means you internalise it, all the grief and stress. Anne Leadbeater – Kinglake Ranges

Our family.... When we are time poor, the people who suffer the most are the ones we love and are closer to us because we think they can cope with it. It is easier to say no to family than a stranger or someone in need. Anon– Kinglake Ranges

I don't socialise the way I used to. I have an anxiety level that rises when I go and see long-term friends as the conversation always comes back to my job.... My family don't understand why I'm sh**ty. Why you can't watch the news because it makes you cry... Jodie Bowker – formerly of EACH, Victoria

You have to find time and energy to train a member of the team and start with lessons learned all over again. They will be naive and make mistakes and it will take a full year for them to understand what's really going on.Jill Hofmann – American Red Cross

The risk is that if it is true that the bar for staff care is starting to rise, then you're behind the curve. You lose the best people and you can't recruit the best people. Dr James Guy – Headington Institute

My four year old daughter, she was very attached to me and I wasn't there. The stress of normalcy gone and on top of that I wasn't there. As stressful as it is for you it is for them too. In emergency management there is the message to make sure your family is safe before doing EM work, but you also have to deal with them after the disaster – they have needs too. You have to take care of them long-term, it is not a short-term thing. Scott Kemins - Building Commissioner, Long Island

Vicarious trauma. In a traumatized environment they are hearing stories and seeing images and have immersed themselves in it and opened their hearts up to those victimized and so they are victimized themselves. Reactions are almost as strong as the reactions of the victims themselves. Dr James Guy – Headington Institute

I have lost hope for the organization. If there were other opportunities I would change role. I like the content of the job, but not the organization. Anon - Japan

Actually I don't think the costs are fully known yet. There are health issues, but what other bigger issues will there be arising another five years down the track? Anon – Kinglake Ranges

They are so tired. They forget how to be empathic and effective. For years they are not bright, sparky people. People saying, "I didn't smoke before this," now they are chain-smoking. A whole town of people who put on or lost lots of weight. A whole lot of people who no longer seem to fit their skin. Their pallor is off and their hair and nails are not shiny. Kate Brady – Australian Red Cross

Committee support. The fabric of community is impacted by everyone being stretched. When you need people to circle the wagons, you haven't got capacity. Anne Leadbeater – Kinglake Ranges

It is so much easier to deal with someone else's stuff than your own so it postpones your own recovery work. It is easier to prioritise someone else's needs or fill in forms and applications for anyone else. Sylvia Thomas - COGA, Kinglake

If you don't value staff they become existentially wounded. "I worked my guts out for my organization and they don't recognize it..." Accumulated grief of not being valued, expertise not being listened to, competence... The effect is distress. Dr Rob Gordon - Consultant psychologist in emergency recovery

I volunteer because I like to do it, I get reward from it and would like to be able to continue to do it. If I can't then for me it is a loss of community. If I cannot contribute then it is another loss. Fiona Leadbeater – Kinglake

The toll on staff is monumental and the toll on clients for not having staff available is insurmountable. Jill Hofmann – American Red Cross

You lose the best people. We burnout the people who are most idealistic and visionary, and you hate to lose these people. Dr James Guy – Headington Institute

The workforce has a breaking point – the person who is your biggest asset today could drop out tomorrow. Valerie Cole – American Red Cross

Your worse self comes out if you are not taken care of. We can hide unhelpful traits when cared for well. But if we are frustrated with the organization, the frustration comes out somewhere - with beneficiaries or your family. For most people it will affect the way they look at the person they are supposed to help. Prejudice or the mentality, "it cannot be that bad. Other people are worse off. Get yourself together"... When they are not looked after you see all this. Louise Steen Kryger – IFRC PS Centre

Staff and volunteers both departed after Katrina, Oklahoma City... We lose people who have it in their heads, how to do this, we lose expertise to mentor other people and develop policies for next time. Diane Ryan – American Red Cross

There is a liability issue if an employee ever sues. It is only a matter of time – there is enough research and data around standards of care. Dr James Guy – Headington Institute