Future of EM highlighted for WA volunteers

The challenges that emergency services are likely to face in the future was addressed by Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC CEO Dr Richard Thornton at the Western Australian Fire and Emergency Services conference in Perth on 6 September.

Invited to give a keynote talk, Dr Thornton spoke about how changes in demographics – growing populations, increasing urban fringes, ageing countries – and technologies – electric cars taking longer to fully extinguish, social media causing people to take more risks – are just some of the drivers of these new challenges that emergency services did not previously have to deal with.

CRC researchers Dr Blythe McLennan (RMIT University), A/Prof Michael Eburn and A/Prof Patrick Dunlop (Curtin University) also spoke at the conference on volunteering research.  

Beyond Blue National Engagement Manager, Police and Emergency Services James Maksey also presented a keynote speech on a national mental health research project headed by CRC researchers from the University of Western Australia Prof David Lawrence, Jennifer Bartlet and Wavne Rikkers. The project, National mental health and wellbeing study of police and emergency services, invited up to 20,000 current and former personnel from 35 police and emergency organisations across Australia to participate in a survey about their mental health and risk of suicide with the findings used to benefit the sector.

The annual conference was attended by more than 500 volunteers from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and Western Australian SES, keeping them up-to-date with new information and resources, as well as a trade exhibition featuring a range of emergency service appliances. The CRC, alongside AFAC and AIDR, hosted a popular stand.