Building Resilience and Psychosocial Support for Wildfire Response

This presentation will integrate the findings from more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and books with hands-on clinical experience from supporting responders to wildfires in Canada. 

Climate change has brought about historical increases in wildfires and as a result deployments have been longer, more frequent and the mental health toll on leaders and responders has also increased. Dr. Laurie Pearce and John Hill will propose a series of recommendations to optimize support for responders and managers and will focus on the value of building resilience through training, the development of competency-based peer support programs, and the provision of on-the-ground and embedded clinical supports.

Lecturers

Dr. Laurie Pearce 

Dr. Laurie Pearce is a recognized practitioner, educator and researcher in the disaster management community. She provides consultation services for various federal and provincial government organizations, was the Research Chair at JIBC, and her existing research is focused on the impacts of disasters on evacuated households, particularly those impacting Indigenous communities. 

Mr. John Hill

John Hill has a keen understanding of the stressors and challenges of a first responder career as he combines careers in firefighting (both wildfire and within a metropolitan fire department setting) and counselling as a clinical social worker. Whether providing one-on-one counselling, supporting a fire crew, Emergency Operations Centre or assistance to a local field unit and their families, John utilizes empirically based, best practices to support and educate mental resilience through all stages of disaster response.