Promoting community wellbeing in bushfire affected communities | Funding now available

The PHN is currently seeking Expressions of Interest from suitably qualified organisations to deliver mental health wellbeing activities. The EOI will be by open invitation via Tenderlink.

Organisations already registered on the PHN’s Tenderlink platform will automatically receive an invitation. Organisations not registered on Tenderlink and wishing to submit an EOI should visit our Tenderlink website for further information and to apply.

The 2019-20 bushfires devastated many communities in the Hunter, New England and Manning regions, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This devastation has left many individuals, families and communities needing wellbeing and resilience building opportunities and access to mental health services as well as support to navigate different mental health pathways.

The Primary Health Network has received Bushfire Recovery Community Wellbeing funding from the Federal government for the provision of non-clinical, evidence based mental health wellbeing activities. The funding is intended for medium to large scale activities and allocation of the funding will be guided by a needs assessment that has been undertaken on bushfire affected communities.

The needs assessment involved consultation with key stakeholders that have been working directly with bushfire affected communities and it identified four priority groups and their associated needs for non-clinical mental health support. The major needs identified were education to improve the self-management of stress and trauma and access to wellbeing activities. The identified groups were:

• Farm Residents 
• Children- young adults- 4-25 years old 
• Older People (65 years +) 
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identified people

Local profile data was also utilised from the National Bushfire Recovery Agency (NBRA), which included percentage of burnt productive land, buildings damaged/destroyed as well as the economic impact to the community

Please note that funding cannot be used for capital works, or actions that duplicate existing funded activities that are primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments, or more appropriately funded through other programs, such as dementia services, disability or psychosocial support services.