Ovens-Murray Bushfire Recovery Program

Access

If you live in Towong Shire, Alpine Shire, the Rural City of Wangaratta, or Indigo Shire, and are struggling to recover from the Black Summer bushfires, you’re eligible for support. Gateway Health’s Community Recovery and Resilience case managers can come to you, and provide assistance around:

Your rebuild

Grants (where available)

Mental health and general well-being

Connections into community legal services

Connections into financial counselling services

Support with basic emergency material needs

Advocacy support to your local government

Frequently asked questions

We work collaboratively with a number of government agencies and other community organisations to wrap support around our clients.

We recognise it is your journey to recovery, which means you’re in charge. When you’re being “case managed” by us we will always ask for your permission before getting in touch with another service, and we’ll go only as far as you want us to.

We’ll always respect your decisions.
Gateway Health Bushfire Recovery officers will always be dressed in their uniform when they come out to meet you. They will also carry a photo ID that you can ask to see.

If we contact you by phone we will have information that only an authorised recovery officer could know, based on the intake you went through when you called the Bushfire Recovery Hotline. In most cases, that will be enough for you to know whether or not the person on the other end of the phone is really there to help you.

If for any reason you are not sure about the identity of the person you’re speaking with, we encourage you to hang up and call Gateway Health on 1800 657 573. Ask to be put through to either the Bushfire Recovery Intake Coordinator or the Bushfire Recovery Program Manager who will be able to access the schedules of the team and will know whether or not a case manager was due to contact you.

If you call us to confirm the identity of someone, please make sure you have the person’s name handy and the time of their call, as well as the number they called from if possible.

If the person who contacted you was not a member of our team, we will support you to contact the police. Gateway Health will press charges against any individual falsely claiming to work for us.
We don’t have a lot of paperwork for you, but when you’re applying for grants or financial assistance there can be a lot of reading and a bit of writing involved.

If you have any issues with the paperwork you’ve been given or have downloaded online, contact us for help. Our case managers won’t write your grant applications unless you absolutely need us to, but we are more than happy to go that extra step if you’re feeling overwhelmed, if you have literacy or numeracy issues, or if the paperwork is confusing.
Bushfire Recovery is considered an essential service which means we are able to maintain outreach visits during lockdowns. However, we only do a face-to-face visit if absolutely necessary.

Our case managers follow the Department of Health and Human Services COVID-safe guidelines, as well as Gateway Health’s own policy requirements.

Before coming out to visit you we’ll call and ask you a few questions. We will maintain safe physical distancing from you at all times. Where distancing cannot be maintained we will wear a mask.