Disaster Preparedness in Social Work: Enhancing Policy in Australian Human Service Organisations.

This article reports on a small qualitative study conducted in regional Australia that aimed to enhance disaster preparedness policy within human service organisations through a collaborative, transformative ecosocial work approach. Researchers co-designed a series of workshops with local emergency services to develop organisational policies on risk assessment, service continuity, and recovery, followed by interviews with eight human service workers from diverse sectors. Five key themes emerged: improved knowledge of disaster preparedness (including local and Indigenous perspectives), the interrelationship between policy and practice, strengthened inter- and intra-professional relationships, organisational challenges (notably resource constraints and neoliberal funding pressures), and recognition of marginalised groups’ vulnerabilities. The study highlights the critical role of human service organisations in disaster resilience and calls for disrupting neoliberal influences to better integrate preparedness across micro-, meso-, and macro-level practices within an ecosocial framework.