As we approach the one year anniversary of the October 2022 floods, Loddon Shire Council is bringing clinical psychologist Dr Rob Gordon to Dingee to help address concerns about mental health in recovery.
Dr Gordon will speak at a free community dinner on Wednesday 13 September in the Dingee Hotel. 
Dr Gordon has been working in the field of disaster recovery since Ash Wednesday in 1983. He has worked with people and communities after the Port Arthur shooting, the Bali Bombing, Black Saturday, the Christchurch Earthquake as well as numerous floods, fires, cyclones and other events throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Gordon said he realised there was a need to work in this space after he first went to the Macedon area with a children’s hospital team following the Ash Wednesday fires.
“It became evident that nobody really knew what we should be doing with people after disasters – they don’t fit into the categories of people with mental illness or mental health problems, they’re normal people who’ve been hurt,” he said.
“They only really just introduced the idea of post-traumatic stress disorder as a possible health problem, but I also saw that it’s much wider than just trauma, it’s about the whole community disruption and the stresses that go throughout the recovery system.”
Dr Gordon saw an opportunity to be involved in pioneering work in this field and set out to train and gain more experience and find out more about the lasting effects of trauma.
He built a body of knowledge in this field and developed a person-centred, trauma informed approach which has shaped the way organisations such as the Australian Red Cross, government agencies and other groups work with traumatised communities after disaster and loss.
To register for the dinner contact Josie McKinnon at Loddon Shire Council on mobile 0474 911 783 or via email j.mckinnon@loddon.vic.gov.au