Practices to support recovery

This paper explores how parents can help children to develop safe relationships with other caring adults. It offers ways for supporting children’s empowerment through communication and by providing choices, plus advice on managing transitions and bridging the gaps between different care settings.

This paper explains the importance of connection, emotional literacy and environment in helping children feel safe, and how regulation can be achieved through the body using sensory- and movement-based exercises, along with fun, relaxing and mindfulness activities.

This paper offers strategies that help children make sense of their experiences and process their feelings to help reduce distress and prevent trauma and mental health difficulties.

This resource demonstrates how play is an important tool for helping children unpack, explore and process difficult experiences like disaster. Creative expression is encouraged as a way for children to communicate about complex emotions and feelings, especially when they might be difficult to articulate verbally.

This paper shares how crucial routines and predictability are for restoring children’s sense of stability and safety in a post-disaster world that can feel scary and unfamiliar. Providing structure by setting boundaries and expectations can help reassure children while they are away from their primary carers. Engaging children to contribute to making decisions about new routines can lend them agency and support their self-esteem.

This paper explains the role of extended family, friends and community, as well as learning communities, specialist mental health services and digital resources in providing avenues for emotional support and expression, and mutual assistance and collective problem-solving. Along with a timely and integrated cross-sector and multi-agency government response, support networks can offer coordinated, effective and united support that ensures children and families receive the assistance and resources they require during the recovery period and that a sense of community and belonging is re-established.

Return to the Disaster practice guide to see all disaster topics, disaster resources for families and the Community Trauma Toolkit.