"Where We Try to Harness Our Agency..."Creative Emergence of Holistic, Trauma-Informed Models of Disaster Case Management for Families in the Face of Massive Wildfires

Background: Climate disasters (e.g. floods, wildfires, and drought) significantly undermine well-being, causing massive destruction, displacement, loss, and grief, with particularly acute impacts for multiply marginalized communities (e.g., indigenous families; BIPOC families disenfranchised from social services; families with disabilities). Yet, despite the proliferation of -and deeply unequal impacts of- disasters, we know relatively little about how the emerging field of disaster case management intervenes in stressors within and after climate disasters, including the diverse, creative ways case managers promote individual and collective resilience (particularly when the workers themselves are typically exposed to the disasters, facing the same stress and uncertainty as their clients (evacuation, displacement, loss of property, threats to health and safety).

Methods: In the research reported here, we discuss findings from a series of interviews done with Disaster Case Managers (DCMs, N=13) who work with families in the West Coast of the United States in the aftermath of multiple fires that caused massive displacement and community trauma.

Results: DCMs spoke of the particular dynamics of attending to trauma, agency, and capacity (particularly parenting capacity). For example, DCMs reflected about how for low-income, single mothers recovering from wild-fire disasters, the pile-up of parenting stress and burdens impacted their families. DCMs described these mothers as “holding on by a thread,” and explored the strategies developed by their organizations and teams to navigate parental overwhelm related to increased caregiving demands that collide with employment gaps and difficulties (including the destruction of job sites), and the logistical and emotional work of wildfire recovery (e.g., long stays in hotels; coordinating with FEMA and insurance; arranging new schooling for children; securing a permanent home). DCMs pointed to strategies they used to support parents’ capacity, supporting parents in re-establishing children’s routines and precious items; cleaning, repairing, and re-establishing homes. Results uncovered programs and interventions that supported critical connections among survivors (e.g., connecting families and elderly people in long-term evacuation hotels, giving survivors reprieve from their respective isolation). DCMs universally noted families who do better had bonds and connections providing logistical and emotional support: schools, families, and community agencies are key to parenting success and child well-being; yet, DCMs described how BIPOC, immigrant, and rural communities were especially isolated and either unaware of official resources or (justifiably) reluctant to access them. Finally, our findings uncovered ways that DCMs grew more confident and empowered in their work, highlighting the importance of agencies embracing flexible, agentic case management strategies and trauma-informed practices (including creative ways of confronting secondary stress and burn-out among workers).

Implications: In light of mounting evidence about the growing, disproportionate, impacts of climate change, our findings suggest important implications for social work practice addressing antecedents and consequences of climate disasters across practice levels (individuals, families, groups, organizations, community development, and policy). Findings point to how social work practice should prepare to understand and address climate disasters within a framework of structural and slow violence, confronting not only acute disasters but also ongoing, systematic economic inequalities and oppression that impact workers and communities alike.