‘Profound personal and professional impacts’: A qualitative study of clinician experiences of a mental health disaster response to Australia's black summer bushfires

Objective

To explore the experiences of clinician and management stakeholders involved in a rural/metropolitan collaborative mental health disaster response to the 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfires in the Snowy Valleys region of southern New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Setting

A mental health and drug health service in the Snowy Valleys region of rural NSW in collaboration with a mental health service from metropolitan Sydney, NSW.

Participants

Mental health clinicians and managers from a rural health district (n = 6) and a metropolitan health district (n = 8) involved in a collaborative disaster response to the 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfire disaster in the Snowy Valleys region of southern NSW, Australia.

Design

An interpretive qualitative study design using semi-structured individual interviews, with transcripts analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.

Results

Thematic findings on participant experiences are presented under three organising constructs of before (stepping up and jumping right in), during (finding a rhythm of working together), and after (profound personal and professional impacts) the mental health disaster response.

Conclusion

Participant experiences had shared and distinct components before, during and after the mental health disaster response, culminating in profound personal and professional impacts. Findings highlight positive aspects and challenges for clinicians participating in a rural/metropolitan collaborative mental health disaster response. The findings of this study contribute new knowledge about experiences of mental health clinicians participating in a disaster response after bushfires, from dual perspectives of members of a bushfire-affected community and those responding from outside a bushfire-affected community, which may inform ongoing planning of responses to disaster in Australia.