Revathi Krishna | Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC

About

Dr Revathi Nuggehalli Krishna

Dr Revathi N Krishna completed her PhD in 2021 from Monash University. Revathi is a Clinical Psychologist and her research interest lies in the intersection of mental health, addressing inequities in communities, disaster resilience, engaging children in disaster research using participatory approaches.

Revathi's PhD research aimed to co-develop and deliver a Disaster Resilience Education (DRE) intervention with and for disadvantaged and marginalised children in the inner-city slums of Chennai, India using a participatory approach. The findings from this thesis re-emphasised the need for active child participation in Disaster Risk Reduction. Not only did children learn practical skills related to disaster preparedness, parents and community members reported that it helped them, both, as family units and communities in being better prepared for disasters overall. Furthermore, the intervention showed preliminary support for a positive impact on children’s mental wellbeing and resilience. The government of Tamil Nadu has since expressed interest in implementing the DRE intervention in some of their local schools.

She currently works as a Research Fellow at Monash Sustainable Development Institute on the Fire to Flourish program which aims to disrupt disadvantage in communities affected by the Black Summer Bushfire.

Projects & roles
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Student project

Coping with disasters by children and families who live in poverty

Many of the people living in poverty are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty regardless of where they live – low and middle income countries / high income countries). Recurrent disaster events escalate vulnerability and poverty levels. Though the link to poverty worsening the effect of natural disasters and vice versa are well established, not much has been explored in the way of understanding how children who live in poverty usually cope with these recurrent adversities The project will explore coping of children and families living in poverty during disasters in both Australia and India in order to exchange and build on the existing knowledge base. The project eventually aims to develop an intervention that builds their resilience in coping with adversities like disasters.