Submission to Productivity Commission Inquiry into Natural Disaster Funding

This document is a submission made in 2014 by the APS to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Adequacy of Current Natural Disaster Funding.

In this submission, the APS addresses a number of matters of particular relevance to natural disaster funding priorities, like risk communication, disaster warnings, psychological as well as household preparedness, and initiatives that promote mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in people following a disaster event.

The APS concludes that prevention and preparedness are crucially important considerations in determining natural disaster funding priorities and are capable of having much greater magnitude of influence and cost effectiveness compared to emergency response and recovery. Natural disaster funding also needs to include psychosocial recovery, which is an essential component of restoring individuals’ and communities’ mental health and wellbeing. Natural disasters will almost always overwhelm existing psychosocial services, and Federal funding is needed to augment services to meet increased demand.

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