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

Mark.Harasymuk@gov.ab.ca

780 422 6557