Supporting children's recovery post-disaster through telehealth

Background: UNICEF Australia and Royal Far West (RFW) partnered to design and deliver a program targeting psychosocial and learning support for children affected by the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires in rural New South Wales (NSW). Children exposed to bushfire have been found to be at a high risk of mental health symptoms and poorer health and wellbeing outcomes. Disasters, such as bushfires, often have a greater impact on rural areas. It is common for these areas to have limited access to professional support and resources, and thus innovative approaches, such as telecare, are required to meet the health and wellbeing needs of children.
Aim: To evaluate the telecare program implemented to support the health and wellbeing of children affected by the Black Summer bushfires.

Methods: One hundred and thirty-five children from rural areas of NSW who were impacted by the bushfires participated in individual occupational therapy, psychology and/or speech pathology telecare sessions. Data to evaluate the outcomes of the telecare were collected using several measures including: satisfaction survey completed by the children and parents/carers, Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), Goal Attainment Scale (GAS), and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

Results: Children who attended telecare sessions overwhelmingly indicated that they felt listened to, enjoyed the sessions, and learned new ways to cope with their feelings. As a result of participating in telecare parents/carers reported that their children had improved participation and functioning in daily life activities and had developed effective emotional regulation strategies and coping mechanisms to deal with adversity. According to COPM outcomes the children demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in their performance of, and satisfaction with, the tasks and activities that they identified they were having difficulty with and that they wanted to work on. The GAS outcomes indicated that at completion of their teletherapy sessions 86% of children attained or exceeded the pre-telecare goals they set. The SDQ results indicated a statistically significant improvement in the children’s mental health outcomes post-telecare, with a small to medium effect size.

Conclusion: The telecare occupational therapy, psychology and/or speech pathology sessions contributed to positive health and wellbeing outcomes for children who had been affected by the bushfires. Telecare offers children in geographically remote areas access to effective allied health professional supports post-disaster that are not immediately available in their local communities.