Bringing trauma informed training to rural and remote areas of Australia.

As a member of the training faculty of the Trauma Recovery Network Australia I am very excited to be involved in bringing high quality training by EMDR consultants to mental health practitioners situated in rural and remote Australia. The TRNA is focused on supporting mental clinicians especially during periods of natural disasters such as bushfires or floods or community crisis events such as the Hillcrest tragedy or the recent Daylesford pub tragedy. The aim of the TRNA is to support therapists to be best equipped to manage these events as they will be the ones responsible for supporting their community in these times. The TRNA is able to teach short courses on immediate trauma management (critical incident desensitising), provide training for relevant health services on being trauma informed including best practice therapies for trauma as well as ongoing consultation and support for the clinicians. 

This is such a vital initiative, as often our rural and remote colleagues cannot access the trainings on offer in city centres that easily due to time, distance and cost. As climate change starts to have a clear impact on Australia, we are more at risk of bush fires and floods. Often after a disaster, once the Emergency Crews have left and the temporary mental health support offered by various agencies dries up, then it is up to the local clinicians to keep supporting their client load, often overloaded by the recent incident. TRNA is quietly working on establishing a network of trained clinicians as well as a network of trained consultants that will be able to assist the people on the ground that will be left doing the long-term work.

In 2024 we will be looking at offering similar trainings in Tasmania, as our state has also had its fair share of tragedies and natural disasters. I am so proud to be connected to this initiative and to be supporting fellow colleagues who are already bearing a huge responsibility of assisting clients in their mental health. More information will be made available once arrangements are in place. Interested clinicians can head to www.traumarecovery.network/home  to learn more about TRNA; if you are already trained in EMDR you may be interested in the upcoming training that will be offered via TRNA on becoming an EMDR consultant. This training will be hosted in March 2024 in Perth and will be led by Professor Derek Farrell – details on the TRNA website.