Fire help goes on

YARRA Valley Practitioners Project founder Karen Dickson has welcomed news that the life of Bushfire Recovery Wellness Vouchers distributed to people affected by the 2009 bushfires has been extended.
Ms Dickson, who is president of the YVPP, said the wellness vouchers were launched in February this year to give people access to a range of complimentary health services.
She said the vouchers were the result of many months of discussions instigated by the YVPP, with the Victorian Bushfire Recovery and Reconstruction Authority, and the Education and Health departments.
“The four $50 vouchers can be used with all local healthcare practitioners who have a private health insurance provider number, fulfilling our initial aim to assist local businesses as well as individuals in their recovery after the fires,” Ms Dickson said.
YVPP clients and the wider bushfire affected community were also able to redeem the wellness vouchers at any of the YVPP clinics in Yarra Glen, Healesville and more recently, Marysville, or via the YVPP newly expanded schools and men’s wellness programs.
Ms Dickson said the need for ongoing assistance was very much still there.
With the recent closure of many other bushfire-related support services, YVPP have experienced an increase in the number of clients coming to them for consultation and treatments.
“Dr Rob Gordon, a clinical psychologist and consultant to the State Government who has worked in natural disaster recovery since the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983, has said that when people have been in a state of continued stress for two and a half years, it’s only when that phase is over, that they experience a profound sense of exhaustion, physically and emotionally,” Ms Dickson said.
She said he had praised the availability of the wellness vouchers, which provide good health support with the help of a qualified healthcare practitioner.
The criteria for eligibility has been clarified to include ‘all people affected by the Victorian bushfires including family and close friends of people affected by the bushfires, and those people who have lost their livelihood directly through the effects of the bushfires’.
“We are pleased to have helped clarify the criteria,” Ms Dickson said.
“It has meant that people working with and supporting bushfire-affected individuals, such as teachers in schools or family members living out of town on the day of the fires have applied and received the wellness vouchers.”
The Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund has extended the date of the vouchers to 30 June 2012.
For information about the wellness vouchers contact Ray Siegersma, general manager at YVPP on 0419 382 250 or www.yvpp.org