Mental health deployment to the 2011 Queensland floods : lessons learned

Following a request from Queensland Health for NSW staff to assist in the mental health response in areas devastated by the January 2011 floods, four teams of mental health staff travelled to Queensland for a series of two-week deployments to support their Queensland colleagues in responding to the flood disaster. This was the first time NSW mental health staff have been deployed interstate and the lessons learned from this deployment were derived from the situation reports, participant feedback and an online survey. The lessons include the need for better communication between incoming and departing teams, the pivotal role of team leaders, and the need to use initiative and a flexible approach in undertaking strategic roles to support the emergency response. The aim of this paper is to document the deployment in order to inform future policy and practice.