for Cairns are 57.3 compared to 62.3 for Queensland and 63.0 for Australia (Thomas et al., 2020:32). With relatively lower ADII scores for Cairns, indicating barriers to access and use of digital technologies, the reliance on online and digital platforms for information, service, social connectivity, economic activity and other interaction is likely to exclude segments of the community. The ADII concludes that, “The benefits of the digital economy cannot be shared when some members of the community are still facing real barriers to online participation” (Thomas et al., 2020:5). Research from disaster response and recovery highlights the critical roles that Information Communications Technologies (ICT) plays, particularly in information exchange, decision making, building social capital, civic participation and connection for long term recovery (Sakurai and Murayama, 2019). Digital participation during a pandemic, particularly in lockdown, can be strongly empowering, overcoming a sense of helplessness, giving a sense of control and agency for individuals, communities and businesses, providing continuity of lives and supporting the move away from victimhood to resilience. ↔ Future outlook impacts: Given the negative impacts of COVID-19, a significant proportion of respondents did not feel positive for the future, with 23.2% of those identifying their situation as ‘somewhat worse’ and 41.5% as ‘far worse’ also identified feeling scared about the future and not being able to see how things will get better. This is compared with 6.3% of those identifying their situation as ‘somewhat better’ and no respondents (0%) identifying it as ‘much better’. On a scale of 1 (‘not hopeful’) to 5 (‘very hopeful’) the average rating for all respondents was 3.4. Respondents identified strong correlations between feeling concerned about their mental health and future outlook. Having optimism (future orientation and mindset) is critical for resilience. Factors such as hope, self-efficacy, managing risks, goal directed actions and confidence are important for agency and underpin the necessary behaviours for psychological resilience to support adaptation and rebounding in the face of obstacles (Chen and Bonanno, 2020; Horesh and Brown, 2020). Building resilience requires a mindset that manages positive behaviours and thinking patterns and is fundamental for recovery due to the spillover effects of the pandemic on all aspects of life (Buheji, 2020; Prime et al., 2020). For this reason, there is a need to focus strongly on developing resilience mindsets through mental support systems and connectivity for socio-psychological resilience in Cairns.
Transformative Recovery Considerations As noted by Hogan and Drew (2020:3), addressing COVID-19 impacts “must be about doing high impact interventions and high return investments, as well addressing inequalities and weaknesses in capacities and capabilities that will constrain recovery.” It must be about investing in “people and places”, and making the most of our social, cultural and regional diversity. Connection between human beings is regarded as a distinct function and a motivator for action (Manley, 2020). Increasing a sense of community, ownership, formation of a common vision, overcoming apathy and isolation, pooling resources, allowing for various perspectives, and building individual and community skills and resources are all critical aspects of “people and places” (Babacan et al., 2021a; Hogan &Drew, 2020). The medium to long term recovery efforts need to focus on adaptive capacity, addressing service and systems gaps, building resilience, developing sustainability under these ‘new normal’ conditions and developing capabilities to ‘bounce forward’ in response to shocks, social stressors and effectiveness under uncertainty. The chronic stressors need to be identified that impact on long term resilience in the face of uncertainty. This assists in understanding of the vulnerable components, the key processes, procedures, 53
