HealthWISE's Recover Adapt Connect (RAC) initiative has provided access to mental health and allied health services for the last two years to support recovery efforts and preparation for future disasters.

The health charity did this through a wide array of programs, from individual help navigating the healthcare system to setting up workshops for community groups to connect and collaborate.

"Our goal was to work with communities to develop psychological preparedness for future disasters. People who are prepared cope better in disaster situations because they understand the physiological symptoms of stress," HealthWISE Integrated Care Manager Anne Williams said.

"Often communities know what they need, they just need a bit of funding or autonomy to make it happen."

That funding came in the form of a huge disaster relief grant from the Australian Government responding to the Black Summer bushfires.

But the health charity's contract with the government expires on March 31, which means job losses across the 16 LGAs HealthWISE operates in, from Tamworth up to Toowoomba in southern Queensland.

The charity attempted to save the RAC initiative by finding alternative sources of funding, but Ms Williams says it was an uphill battle for the initiative due to its "hard to measure" benefits.

"You can give someone $1 million to build a bridge, and that's going to give that community an escape route if the town floods. That's a very clear-cut, clear outcome, easy to budget and complete project," she said.

"Ours was a really human, messy approach addressing medium to long-term preparedness."

Ms Williams says the regular starting up and shutting down of programs like RAC is "wasteful and expensive," something HealthWISE called attention to at a parliamentary inquiry into rural mental health last month.

Meanwhile, volunteer groups across NSW are increasingly calling for better emergency management.

"We live in a worsening fire climate. Overall, the disaster-inquiry-disaster cycle is a broken model and does not deliver on the operational lessons needed for next time. The disaster review system is letting down firefighters and traumatised communities," Independent Bushfire Group Convenor Geoffrey Luscombe said.

"There's so much to learn from the Black Summer fires, about what worked well and what needs to change. Here we are four fire seasons down the track into our worsening fire climate, and there still is no comprehensive independent and expert analysis of the fires and how they were managed."

Under the RAC umbrella, HealthWISE has been able to host nearly 2500 group events supporting ongoing recovery efforts and building community resilience for future catastrophes.

Data provided by the charity shows RAC reached more than 40,000 people.

The initiative also donated more than 5000 disaster books and resources to 705 early childhood and preschools.

"It was our biggest stakeholder engagement exercise. We have never been able to engage with that many communities," Ms Williams said.

Some of the staff from the RAC initiative have been re-deployed to other jobs within HealthWISE, but Ms Williams said losing the wisdom of local contractors like psychologists, social workers, and physiotherapists will be a heavy blow for the organisation.

"We have been told by experts that we need to bring science and imagination together to solve the climate crisis, and I think that's what RAC did," she said.

"The imagination and ideas and solutions came from the community, and the science came from us. We were able to bring in evidence-based programs to respond and support them."

HealthWISE will retain the knowledge and partnerships developed during the two-year initiative, and hasn't ruled out bringing RAC back should more funding be made available.