The Wildlife Heroes: Caring for Carers podcast
The Wildlife Heroes: Caring for Carers podcast is live! FNPW has teamed up with podcast producer Gretchen Miller, wildlife carers and psychologists to start a mental health conversation.
“The wildlife carers who manage Australia’s injured and orphaned native animals are a national asset that requires strategic nurturing with empathy, understanding, financial and psychological support if it is to remain viable and sustainable”
( A review of roadkill rescue: who cares for the mental, physical and financial welfare of Australian wildlife carers? Englefield et al., 2018)
The first five episodes of Caring for Carers are now live and accessible via wildlifeheroes.org.au, Spotify or iTunes.
Topics and guests featured in the series:
1. Climate Change – the grief we feel
How can we take care of ourselves as climate warriors and climate worriers?
Guests:
Dr Ros Irwin, a veteran carer and President of Friends of the Koala from Lismore in NSW.
Sally Gillespie, a former psychotherapist who presents talks and workshops on climate psychology and ecopsychology.
2. Personal Wellbeing – looking after yourself in order to better look after others
Wildlife care is 24/7 as we all know. So how do we make time for ourselves, and what can we do to ensure we remain well, and are able to keep caring?
Guests:
Suzy Nethercott-Watson, a carer for 20 years, and the director of Two Green Threads – a website built to support wildlife volunteers in the work they do. www.twogreenthreads.org
Sharon Draper, animal lover and Sydney based psychologist with an interest in trauma and compassion fatigue.
3. Community Conflict
The pressures are great, so what happens when we stop getting along? We consider conflict – from individual, to in the group, to with the larger community and how wildlife volunteers can build and maintain positive and supportive relationships.
Guests:
Jess Birrell, wildlife volunteer, reptile trainer and expert.
Lyn Page, TAFE senior counsellor, volunteer field psychologist with Red Cross, and a member of the disaster response network with the Australian Psychological Society
4. Catastrophic Events
Catastrophic events are all too frequent – flood and fire all take their toll on wildlife and wildlife carers are always there to pick up the pieces. So how do we best recover and look after ourselves, and our animals, after we’ve been on the front line of a traumatic wildlife rescue emergency?
Guests:
Jessi Jean Drew-Smythe, wildlife volunteer and bat carer, studying environmental biology
Lyn Page, TAFE senior counsellor, volunteer field psychologist with Red Cross, and a member of the disaster response network with the Australian Psychological Society
5. Supporting Others – looking after our carer friends
We’re all in this together – so how best to support and encourage our fellow wildlife volunteers when they struggle?
Guests:
Tilly Gray, wildlife carer who loves all animals (humans included!) and is currently working on “The Wildlife Carer Rehabilitation Manual – How to Care for Human Beings”
Sally Gillespie, a former psychotherapist who presents talks and workshops on climate psychology and ecopsychology and has written a book, Climate Crisis and Consciousness: Re-imagining Our World and Ourselves.
The podcast was funded through the Australian Government’s bushfire wildlife and habitat recovery package and is part of the Caring for Carers program that FNPW is rolling out as part of the Wildlife Heroes project.
Listen via: https://wildlifeheroes.org.au/wildlife-heroes-caring-for-carers-podcast/ …or on Spotify or iTunes.
And please share with your wildlife rescue and care community.