Social workers a key part of disaster recovery, says Dalhousie prof
Conference on climate change and disaster response draws two dozen international researchers to Halifax
Social workers can play a large role in supporting people through trauma after a disaster, says a Dalhousie University professor who was part of a two-day conference in Halifax this week.
Jeff Karabanow, who teaches social work at Dal, was among the scholars from Canada and around the world who gathered on Thursday and Friday to discuss responses to climate change and disasters and to share lessons learned.
"Disasters tend to have larger impacts on more … vulnerable populations," said Karabanow, who was part of a panel discussion on the role of social work in climate disaster planning and supporting society's most vulnerable.
"A lot of disasters … they happen at a certain point and then there's a lot of kind of a recovery time."
The conference, hosted by Dalhousie, drew two dozen international scholars from the United States, United Kingdom, Pakistan, Japan and South Korea, according to conference co-ordinator Haorui Wu.
"Disaster will never respect our geographic boundaries," said Wu, pointing to air pollution from wildfires as an example, making it important for countries to collaborate and share their experiences.
Wu is an associate professor at Dalhousie whose research focuses on how to help people prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters.
One topic covered at the conference was the inclusion of animals in disaster planning. There is some research looking at how to prepare pets for disasters, Wu said.
"But we do not have … the disaster plan for how to do [that] for the agriculture animals."
Proactively supporting people before disasters is something Nova Scotia could be better at, said Karabanow, pointing to an example shared by a scholar from Japan during the conference.
"Social workers [in Japan] have embedded in [a] preventative model of case management, working with vulnerable populations in areas where they're prone to disaster environmentally," Karabanow said.
He cited as an example helping to build a network of support around a person with mobility issues and ensuring they have the means to be transported to higher elevation in a flood-prone area.
Wu said that Nova Scotia, with the province's experience dealing with wildfires and storms, also has knowledge it can share with others.
"We really need … researchers to collaborate together, to deal with" climate change and disasters, he said.
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