One came for me as I was listening to ABC Drive's Raf Epstein as he was doing his regular Changing Tracks session when he reads a letter from a listener about a song that was playing when their life changed track.

The listener, Terry, was directly involved in that hellish day in February 2009.

A firefighter who had to watch his own home burn down, he said nothing in his experience before had prepared him for a fire of such intensity, impact and devastation.

He talked about suffering from "fire brain" in the coming months, until one night he went to a benefit concert featuring singer songwriter Paul Kelly.

It wasn't the classic Paul Kelly songs like From Little Things Big Things Grow that got to him, but the lyrics from Careless.

Like a mixture in a bottle, like a frozen over lake

Like a long-time, painted smile I got so hard I had to crack

He said so many of the people in that hall had got to that cracking point, "where the hand goes up, you put the tools down and you seek help". But he also said, poignantly and perceptively, that many had got there earlier and others were yet to come.

That's a big lesson from the Black Saturday bushfires and in other natural disasters, whether they be fire, flood, or drought, which has been illuminated through the Beyond Bushfires research project, a five-year study led by the University of Melbourne that explored the medium to long-term impacts of the Victorian 2009 bushfires on individuals and communities.

It talked to more than 1000 children, adolescents and adults from 12 communities which experienced varying levels of fire impact, as well as in-depth interviews with people with a range of experiences.

At the five-year point, it found that more than a quarter of those in the high impact areas still suffered serious mental health issues.

It was an important finding, to know that the pain and hurt was continuing and how disasters can affect different people in different ways, in the same communities, even the same families.

But importantly the research has also been studying what helped people to deal with the trauma.

Close friends and family, social networks and community groups really helped with resilience and recovery.

People living alone were at higher risk of poor mental health outcomes, but this risk was reduced for people who belonged to local community groups. Strong attachment to the natural environment was also associated with increased mental health, life satisfaction, resilience, community attachment and posttraumatic growth.

The researchers recently announced they had received additional funding for the 10th anniversary of Black Saturday and will be getting back in touch with the original participants. We look forward to their findings.

At the same time, we know that marking anniversaries of traumatic events can also be momentous.

For some, it is part of the healing process; for others it can retraumatise. We know we have to keep an eye out on people who have been involved in the recent commemorations or who have heard and seen reports in the media that graphically bring back that day, or the weeks and the months of hardship that followed.

These feelings are normal and mostly will soon subside as part of the body’s natural healing and recovery process. But some people may need new or extra support. And we need to be alert to the next disaster, so often a feature of rural and regional life.

As I write, Queensland Health is teaming up with the Royal Flying Doctors Service to urgently fly in mental health staff to north and western Queensland communities which have suffered through years of drought and are now losing shocking numbers of livestock due to floods.

Let's make sure, at an individual and community level and in the services we provide, that the right help is there for them when things get so hard, that they crack.

Angus Clelland is chief executive of Mental Health Victoria.