Around 100 local authority employees are being trained in a new project to help improve the mental well-being of people whose properties have flooded or at are risk of flooding.
The Psychological First Aid Training will start this month and be delivered by specialist trainers Purple Dog to a diverse range of front-line staff including community first officers, flood risk managers, management teams, emergency planning officers, CCTV operators and gully wagon drivers. Psychological first aid is a technique designed to reduce the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder.
This is part of a West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WYFLIP) project which launched after receiving £56,000 funding from the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee and Kirklees Council.
The Flood Risk and Mental Wellbeing Project is being led by Kirklees Council to reduce the impact of flood incidents by helping people become more resilient and recover more quickly from flood incidents by improving their mental wellbeing.
The project will include support from a mental health specialist charity, campaigns to raise awareness of available mental health support, promotion of green social prescribing, holding practical well-being events, and wellbeing packs.
There will also be wider environmental and recreational benefits for residents including improved physical wellbeing, connection to nature, community togetherness and resilience.
Initially teams working for Kirklees Council will receive the mental health training and then it will be rolled out to other local authorities in the region. It will help teams to provide information on flood resilience and signpost people to appropriate mental health services as needed.
Five communities in Kirklees, which have experienced severe flooding in recent years, have been selected to be the initial target areas. They are Birkby, Liversedge, River Colne and River Holme Catchments and Mirfield.
This is a really exciting and innovative project as usually funding is provided for engineering solutions such as building new defences.
Flooding incidents are almost certainly set to become more frequent as a result of climate change and they have a devastating, long lasting impact on residents who are affected.
“Although the project is initially focused on communities in Kirklees, the plan is to share what we learn to benefit others further afield by developing good support and helping them to become more resilient and prepared for unpredictable flooding. Cllr Katie Kimber, Spokesperson for WYFLIP and Luddendenfoot councillor, Calderdale Council
There are steps we can take to reduce the chance of flooding, but it is likely to be a challenge that continues to affect our communities in Kirklees, especially as we see shifts in climate change.
That is why this project is so important, and I am proud to see officers at Kirklees Council leading the way for our region.
This project will help prepare communities for unpredicted flooding and will help them to recover with compassionate and understanding support.
Cllr Munir Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Environment and Highways at Kirklees Council
A key goal during this phase of the project is to see how we can expand the learning and enhance knowledge across the region.
Ultimately, we want to help improve the wellbeing of those at risk of flooding and tackle the challenges of climate change in as many ways as possible to ensure our region is more resilient to future flooding.
If there are any potential financial donors who would like to support our work it would be wonderful to hear from them. Professor Joseph Holden, Director of iCASP and water@leeds at the University of Leeds and WYFLIP Board member
During its initial developmental stage, the project will focus on how to complement and build on other work in the flooding and mental health fields, define how learning can be shared widely to other locations and gather information needed to create a robust business case for future funding. A key goal during this phase of the project is to identify other sources of funding so that this valuable work is sustainable.
Huddersfield University Wellbeing Academy
The Kirklees flood risk managers are working with Huddersfield University Wellbeing Academy to carry out research linked to the Flood Risk and Mental Wellbeing Project. The plan is to publish the findings in an academic journal so that they can be shared widely allowing others to learn and benefit from their work. The Academy has bid for extra funding from Creating Opportunities through Local Innovation Fellowships COLIF – which aim to spread opportunities and reduce regional inequalities through working with local businesses, third sector organisations and policy communities –to expand the project.
The Fellowship seeks to understand the mental health and wellbeing impacts of climate-related disasters on affected communities. It will develop proposals for policy makers and interventions that improve the resilience of increasingly vulnerable communities. Collaboration will be encouraged between academic institutions, local authorities, and community organisations to create practical and scalable solutions, including building upon the existing frameworks through the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme. Ultimately the aim is to develop a network of researchers and organisations working together on longer-term improvements in this area.
Initially the plan is to develop a needs assessment to find out what impact flooding is having on the mental health of residents, whether they know how to get support and what barriers they face to get the help they need.
Questionnaires are being sent to communities at risk of flooding in Kirklees and then to those throughout West Yorkshire. Interviews will be carried out to discover what they think would help improve their mental health in relation to flooding and other risks such as support from wellbeing groups or targeted events and what action the council could take to improve the situation.
West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WYFLIP) is a partnership of the five local authorities in West Yorkshire, the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and the Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (iCASP) based at the University of Leeds. It also has support from local stakeholders including the local resilience forum, emergency responders, the third sector and community groups and local councillors. The WYFLIP board will support delivery of the project by organising annual stakeholder workshops including mapping, sharing learning and exploring ways to build on existing projects.
For more information contact Cath Seal, WYFLIP communications officer, email: C.Seal@leeds.ac.uk