Timely supports through flood crisis and beyond

When Mildura was hit with a severe flood event in December 2022, resident Teresa found herself in terrifying circumstances. Despite warnings to evacuate, Teresa, who lived right on the river bend,  was unable to move her belongings as she had sustained a significant and permanent injury in a workplace accident in 2019. Fortunately, council workers and volunteers intervened and helped Teresa move into shared temporary crisis accommodation.

During her stay in the share unit, Teresa was physically attacked in a violent altercation with another resident and police were called in to safely escort her to another crisis accommodation. Adding to her vulnerability, Teresa’s only source of income was her Disability Support Pension.

At this time, two weeks after her evacuation, Teresa was linked with the Windermere Recovery Support program. Funded by the Victorian and Federal Governments the program assists those affected by the Victorian flood event, to recover and rebuild.

Over a period of three months, her recovery support worker helped her with a range of supports designed to help her rebuild her life.

To address some of Teresa’s immediate needs, Windermere’s recovery support worker helped Teresa with accessing federal government payments, making requests through Emergency Recovery Victoria (ERV) for crisis accommodation, obtaining grocery and fuel vouchers and communicating with real estate agents to advocate for her needs and have repairs completed.

She also received support for a variety of other vital needs such as referrals for legal services for workplace injury advice and support, state government Re-establishment Payment application, mentoring on tenancy rights and responsibilities, and psychological first aid and safety plans in the event of a violent incident.

Once the repair work on Teresa’s home was completed, the next challenge was to arrange the move back in. The recovery centre and council and volunteer services were no longer able to assist. This left Teresa with no realistic moving options, adding greatly to her stress and trauma. She could move back home, but without her personal belongings including her bed.

Two weeks later Teresa and her support worker were able to enlist the services of a moving company with the help of Windermere’s flexible funding package. Her recovery support worker coordinated the invoices and timeframes and within 48 hours Teresa was back home with all her personal belongings.

If not for Windermere’s flexible funding option, Teresa would have had to remain in temporary accommodation for another two to three weeks for a Centrelink loan to come through.

Instead, Teresa is now settled in and carrying on with her life. She is continuing to work with her support worker to source relevant supports as she recovers from trauma and injury.

 

*Details changed to protect identity

Fore more information about Windermere’s Flood Recovery Program visit our Flood Recovery Support Program