Following a career dedicated to supporting the community in the wake of traumatic events, joining the APS Disaster Response Network was a natural next step for this psychologist.
Psychologists are often fuelled by an internal calling to support their fellow community members.
Take Don Finlayson MAPS for example: amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he came out of retirement due to a strong desire to help the slew of people requiring immediate mental health support.
"The waitlists to see a psychologist were so long that I thought I should step up and contribute," says Finlayson.
This calling to support his community has flowed throughout Finlayson's entire career, beginning in the 1960s and 70s when he worked as a primary and high-school teacher.
"I'd always been interested in special education and helping to teach kids with disabilities. At the time, I did some work in a psychiatric centre and a special unit for children who were residential.
"I went back into mainstream teaching for a while as a Special Education support teacher, and I became really interested in the experiences of siblings and parents of kids with disabilities. Of course, there's a lot of love there, but it can also be challenging."
It was here that Finlayson's passion for psychology bloomed. Eventually, he found his area: supporting people following a traumatic event.
From working with survivors of the Bali bombings, Newcastle earthquakes and NSW/VIC bushfires, to supporting school-aged students following suicides, child protection management and crisis management following critical incidents, Finlayson's career has been dedicated to stepping into the wake of trauma and helping people to pick themselves back up again.
He's also co-authored a therapeutic journal published by the Department of Health – called The Bushfire and Me – along with two psychiatrists, to support people in the wake of a bushfire tragedy. And this only scratches at the surface of his career.
As is the case with many people who are drawn towards this kind of care work, Finlayson's impetus was partly born out of personal experience.
"My own personal experience with disaster was with the Maitland floods [in 1955] when I was just a child. My father was involved in the support interventions. He was away for three weeks on an army duck [an amphibious vehicle] and, because there were no telephones back in those days, we didn't hear from him for that whole time.
"It was a scary time with the floods, but also to have the father of the house away for that long."
In the aftermath of the floods, Finlayson recalls the devastating damage done to his hometown.
"I was evacuated to a family home in Newcastle for three weeks, which, for a young child, was a trying time too. That always stayed rather vividly in my memory and maybe assisted me in my motivation to get involved in the type of work that I do."
A pathway to disaster response work
It's no surprise then that Finlayson was drawn towards the APS Disaster Response Network and training program, a government-funded APS training program and network that trains volunteer psychologists to support first responders on the frontline of disasters.
"I think it's really important for the public to see psychologists in a volunteer role," he says.
"I joined the APS in 2006 and learned about this program they were running. They said it required providing psychological first aid and, because that was something I was quite familiar with, I thought I'd give that a go."
What Finlayson loved about this network and approach was its focus on proactive rather than reactive support.
"When psychologists are involved in the early stages, often people recover reasonably quickly. But [without immediate support], some hang onto it and continue to be traumatised well into the future. Then, sometimes many years later, we come in and attempt to treat them and try to see what happened right at the beginning and assist them to manage that trauma.”
One of his first instances of deploying his disaster response training was in the aftermath of a stabbing in North Queensland.
"[The first responders] were very distressed about what had taken place," he says. "When such events occur, there are usually a number of people who need to be comforted to a certain degree and referred to other [others] who can assist them."
APS makes the situation easier for DRN members, he says, by providing them with a script, that they can adapt as needed, to guide the conversation in a useful direction.
"I thought that was effective support," he says.
Another example was when he supported Red Cross responders following the 2019-2020 bushfires across the NSW, Canberra and Victorian coastline.
"I've always had great respect for the Red Cross and the people who work there. They do wonderful work, so I was glad to be working beside them.
"I also thought it was a good opportunity to work in a team. Psychology is often very individual work, so it's always satisfying to work with other people."
In supporting these Red Cross workers, Finlayson asked questions about their previous exposure to traumatic events and assessed what their support systems looked like both in and outside of their work.
"I'd also talk to them about how their children, spouses, partners and families were coping. With them being away, often for weeks at a time, that's often something that's on their mind."
Finlayson also had a long list of people to support following Melbourne's 2017 Bourke Street attacks.
"The Red Cross asked me to join a group of their volunteers for one day to walk through Bourke Street Mall. The grief and shock was so tangible. Everywhere you went where a death had taken place, there were thousands of notes, messages and flowers. People gathered everywhere and there was lots of crying and terrible sadness.
"There were a couple of Red Cross people who wanted to talk about the impact it was having on them. And there were a couple of persons present who had witnessed the carnage on that day.”
Finlayson was able to provide support to those individuals and then encourage them to seek ongoing psychological support to manage their experiences from that day.
Getting involved
Finlayson says joining the DRN is a great way to be involved in a system that's designed to enhance resilience in your community.
"All that's required is to be a caring, empathising person and to go through the free training that APS provides."
The online, self-paced training was very valuable, even to Finlayson – someone who has dedicated much of their life to trauma-response work.
Once trained, volunteers can offer their support over the phone to the frontline workers, he says, making it easy to slot this important work into your broader work schedule.
However, he notes that it's also important to look after yourself when engaging with this type of work.
"It can feel hard to do normal things when you've been involved with some fairly frantic, complex and very emotional situations, but we have to attempt to look after ourselves. Self-care is so important in our work with intervention. When we're feeling our best, we do our best work.
"For people who are going into the Disaster Response Network, try to maintain normal activities and normalise your own process as much as possible. Take notes, maintain confidentiality, etc. as you would with a client or patient, about the situation you've experienced."
He emphasises the importance of leaning on your psychology community for support.
"Utilise your colleagues. We've all got trusted colleagues, care supervisors, if you like, who we can lean on in these situations.
"I think the evolved structure that APS is developing for the Disaster Response Network is going to be even more accomplished," he adds. "They're going to be having more networking and contact between [DRN members] That can do nothing but good. I really applaud APS's efforts there.
"Regular meetings of peers online is also an excellent idea. It will allow [us to] discuss our experiences with each other and come up with solutions and directions together."
The goodness of humankind
Even though disaster situations are often drenched in sadness, fear and distress, Finlayson says it's crucial to identify the goodness that comes out of these situations.
"The way the people in our community, and probably most other communities, react when our neighbours and fellow citizens are under great distress is to reach out and assist.
"We should be so grateful for all of our volunteers – the hundreds of thousands of firefighters, lifesavers and volunteers at the Red Cross, Salvation Army and the many other organisations. The work they do is really a wonderful thing. I'm also thankful for the journalists who, in many instances, volunteer their time to tell these important stories.
"[Being part of the DRN] adds to peoples’ lives. I think any psychologist who chooses to join the network is going to really value the experience."
Want to join the APS Disaster Response Network? You can learn more about it here or APS members can sign up for the free training here.