Supporting those affected by disaster
The government has announced plans to appoint an independent public advocate to support victims of major disasters. But can the role work effectively?
When I provide crisis communication and management training one subject always comes up and that is about how to deal with the impact of the event. How do we provide adequate support for staff, particularly those working in communication? It is something that has become more recognised as a key part of the crisis response for organisations. The Covid pandemic made us all look at wellbeing as a more crucial element.
It is something that we need to remember though as time moves on. Every crisis communication plan should consider wellbeing, both of the communication team and of the staff. Internal communication needs to include information and support. It is not a second place to dealing with the media or social media, and is incredibly important. If you didn’t see the chat I had with Rachel Miller founder of All Things IC about internal communication in a crisis I would urge you to check it out).
But it doesn’t end there. The crisis response must consider how to support those who are affected by what has happened.
In 2017 there were so many horrific incidents that brought this to the forefront of people’s minds. People who have had their lives irrevocably changed should have support available. The support needs to be practical, psychological and ultimately, they need someone to help them that isn’t connected to the response. I have always admired the work of police family liaison officers but they are in place to do a specific role. Who else is there to help them?
The government plan to create a public advocate role seemed like an important way forward. This would be an independent person who is there to offer support and help people navigate through the processes, and signpost to vital help. Speed is of the essence and having a system in place that can spring into action immediately is a huge step forward. However, I was grateful to Joshua Rozenberg for highlighting a change that has been made to the government’s proposal. (Read his detailed review.)
In an announcement on 27 November the plan is now to have one permanent independent public advocate who will be in place for all emergencies. The statement adds: “Alongside the new appointment, the government can also appoint specialist advocates with relevant experience to each individual disaster to offer expert advice and insight. These could include community leaders, for example, who hold the confidence of victims.”
There are some clear challenges with this position. The first is how independent will the role be when it is dealing with the same political leaders over time? Relationships will build and these may become significant and challenge the independence. The appointment, I assume, will be made by the government. Will the advocate be able to truly represent the people affected? On a practical note, if we have a time like the terrible year of 2017 would one person be able to work on each of those disasters? I suggest that very quickly it would be evident that more than one public advocate would be needed so that those affected in each disaster had the support they need. It would be terrible to think there would be a ranking in terms of which disaster was the most serious and needed that role to be available.
The independent public advocate is said in the press release to be available ‘round the clock’ but this again is not practical. What happens when there are personal commitments or holidays? Disasters don’t keep to a helpful timeframe. In my last few years in police communication it felt as though I was on permanent call and available all the time. The impact of this was huge and I didn’t realise the toll it took until I was no longer in that situation. One person simply cannot be always available.
The appointment is a major step forward and an important one to ensure that those experiencing the worst moments of their lives are given the support they need and have a right to expect. I hope that it is not being set up to fail with the changes that have been announced.
Amanda Coleman is a crisis communication expert and consultant, founder of Amanda Coleman Communication and the author of Crisis Communication Strategies. Read the original post.