The Hindu Business Line : Homeless and alone

IT IS MORE than a week since the killer tsunami struck many nations of Asia. Indonesia, the worst hit, Sri Lanka, India (including Andaman Islands) Thailand Myanmar Malaysia and even Kenya and Somalia were affected.

Although the scale of the impact varied from each country, the pain and grief over the loss of friends and family, the security of shelter and livelihood are felt everywhere.

Particularly tragic is the fate of orphaned children, the old and the infirm who are left behind. The scope and extent of emotional and psychological damage to the survivors is impossible to imagine and understand.

Although relief efforts take care of providing basic amenities to the victims, it will take much more than that to heal the psychological and emotional scars as they piece together the fragile remains of their lives.

Officials from the World Health Organisation, Unicef, and other relief agencies are well aware that `providing psychological services for millions who have lost family members, homes and communities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries will become critical in the coming weeks.'

In Cuddalore, and elsewhere, it is reported some mothers who lost their children have gone berserk with such uncontrollable grief that they are grabbing children and infants from among survivors. Psychological rehabilitation is not at all going to be easy as our people are not accustomed to having their lives run by impersonal State agencies. Our family ties run deep, so many of us may not trust anyone outside the family or community.

Psychiatrists trained in West may not fully understand such close knit family ties as they are accustomed to living independent of parental support from an early age.

Further, the level of literacy and education would only exacerbate the despair of the victims and they would find it difficult to comprehend why they were chosen to suffer this fate.

Dr Rachel Yehuda, Director of the Traumatic Stress Programme at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Bronx Veterans Affairs Hospital, cautions against labelling survivors' reactions as a `mental health problem' and underscores that "those who are deeply scarred emotionally will need long-term care, not a few hours or days of emergency care by grief counsellors or other mental health workers."

Even so, it is a welcome effort by the United Nations, which has reportedly set up a network for counselling in Sri Lanka and, sent mental health workers to the Maldives.

In the case of our country, there were some reports of attempts to tackle the psychological requirements of those affected in the wake of the Gujarat earthquake.

More than ever, it is absolutely necessary now that we train volunteers who are willing to participate in the long-term rehabilitation of those traumatised by the tsunami. Healthcare must not be limited to preventing and treating diarrhoea.

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