Fire Ready Carers Kit

Project Summary

Certain factors and situations can result in higher levels of vulnerability to the threat of fire. For some people including children, those who are frail, injured, elderly, socially isolated, or have some level of cognitive and/or physical impairment; their survival can depend on the people who care for them. The Fire Ready Kit supports some care providers in helping their clients with fire preparedness and planning and includes training and resources to equip carers with skills and knowledge to assist people in these situations to understand their risk, and plan for leaving early in the event of high fire danger.

Background and Situation Context

Home and Community Care providers are often required to work and travel in high bushfire risk areas, to visit clients and patients in need of care. These employees require fire safety knowledge to ensure they remain safe during the fire season. However, patients and clients living in high risk bushfire locations are also at risk. If patients/clients have restricted mobility or are vulnerable given their health status it is important that those providing services to them can prompt and assist them to have a realistic and achievable leave-early plan. People who are housebound and/or have health problems may not attend local FRV Community Meetings or take part in other fire safety events and initiatives. An effective way to reach more vulnerable people is through the outreach service.

Activities

The Fire Ready for Carers program is an ongoing program, and consists of four separate presentation modules. These modules can be delivered in the one session or separately depending on the need of the employer and their staff. The four modules include:

• Module 1- Bushfire safety for workers in bushfire prone areas
• Module 2 – Bushfire survival training awareness
• Module 3 (Specialist module): Assisting vulnerable clients and patients to develop a plan
• Module 4 - Home fire safety awareness

Resources available

• Training outline for the Community Care Provider to learn about the program
• PowerPoint presentation for use by the presenter of the session; one for each session
• Fire Ready Carers Kit, a resource for those participating in the session
• A Carers Guide to Home Fire Safety, a flipchart resource for those participating in the training module 4

Results

The program aims to achieve the following objectives

• To inform Community Care staff (and volunteers) working and travelling in high risk areas of the bushfire risk, and the measures they can take to reduce the risk and act safely.
• To provide Community Care staff with the knowledge and understanding of how they can assist their clients and patients to better prepare, plan and respond to the bushfire risk.

POSITIVE impacts/changes/benefits for the target beneficiaries

The program has a range of short term, medium term and long-term benefits it aims to achieve.

These include

• Increased understanding of the risks associated with travelling and working in high risk areas
• Development of skills and resources for HACC workers to assist their clients to develop a leave-early plan
• Vulnerable clients have a bushfire survival plan that they can implement on high risk days

Next Steps

An expectation is that at a local level (District or Regional) a stakeholder analysis be undertaken of all local Community Care Providers. Local council/s, through the community/social services area, can assist with this analysis and are a key stakeholder in this program. Once relationships are established locally, the program can be offered to all Community Care providers and be prioritised to those who provide outreach services to vulnerable clients and patients living in high-risk areas. The program delivery could include the following groups of care providers

• Home and Community Care (HACC) Workers, which is usually through local councils
• District Nurses
• Maternal Health Nurses
• Community Correctional Staff
• Occupational Therapists
• Children and Family Services Staff
• Community Mental Health Workers
• Indigenous Health Provider Staff
• Community Wellbeing Volunteers such as Meals on Wheels

Reflection

The program is in early stages of delivery; however, we plan an evaluation for late 2016.

Additional Project Details