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Counselors help Sichuan heal

By Qian Yanfeng and Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-31 07:47

MIANYANG, Sichuan: While construction fleets help survivors of the May 12 earthquake rebuild their cities, Zhang Ling is helping them rebuild their lives.

Life is still hard for many traumatized quake survivors seven months after the magnitude-8 earthquake ravaged southwest China, claiming about 70,000.

The volunteer mental health counselor from the quake-zone-based psychological counseling center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has spent more than half a year assisting grieving victims who lost family and friends. She has chosen to take their sorrows along with her own but said she is grateful for the opportunity to bring new hope to her patients.

"Most of the people we've talked to have shown positive signs of recovery," Zhang said.

Zhang gave up her job at a hospital in Hunan's provincial capital Changsha soon after the quake to join the psychological intervention program in Mianyang, one of the most devastated areas.

Her patients have included teachers and students, and rescue workers who suffered severe psychological trauma after failing to save thousands buried under the rubble.

"After many sessions, I can see they begin to reflect on their lives and think about the future, although it still may take them a long time to completely walk out from under the disaster's shadow," Zhang said.

In a prefabricated building in which one of the CAS counseling offices is located, at the temporary site of Beichuan High School in Mianyang, Zhang's kindness and humor consistently bring smiles to her students.

The quake razed the school, killing more than 1,000 students and 40 teachers, and leaving about 70 disabled.

While students' memories of the tragic moment when the classrooms collapsed remain sharp, they appear to be perfectly at ease with "Zhang Laoshi" (Teacher Zhang), the woman who showers them with motherly love and offers them generous help whenever needed.

Along with another three colleagues, Zhang has turned the 15-sq-m office into a safe haven for students.

Here, they can privately pour their emotions out to stuffed animals.

"These students need to have someone who understands and shares their sorrows and fears," Zhang said.

"Many of them suffer from horrible nightmares. By staying close to them, we are trying to drive despair from their minds and encourage them to carry on with life."

But it has not been easy. Even with reconstruction well underway and new hope emerging, many still suffer recurring flashes of despair when recalling the quake, Zhang said.

She said it might take at least a year for people to come to terms with losing someone they had known for five years. No one knows how long it might take those who lost family.

That is why for the past seven months, the CAS team has been pondering and experimenting with different ways to replace victims' fears with hopes.

They started with comforting and educating schoolteachers, as they would directly influence the way their students would cope.

Then they began mental health education courses students could attend on Friday afternoons.

By participating in group discussions and activities, students learn to rally together when facing difficult situations, Zhang said.

"The key is to make them feel they are part of a group and are not alone. That way, they may open their hearts, diminishing the pressure they feel."

Participants would also receive counselors' phone numbers, ensuring help was just a phone call away.

"That is how we identify the severely affected students who need to talk privately," Zhang said, adding the counselors must seek these kids out, because some are too shy to speak up on their own.

More needs to be done

But some forms of philanthropic support with negative consequences have compromised the counselors' work.

Receiving donations covered with advertisements makes some students feel companies are using them for public relations purposes, Zhang said, adding some firms seem to have taken advantage of the disaster to polish their images.

"Students complain to me that they often receive exceptionally large outfits that are obviously not intended for students," she said.

"They feel hurt. And those donations are constantly reminding them they are quake victims who need public sympathy.

"I think more reason and love is needed in such public support; otherwise, it will only harm the students.

"In a way, we all should assume responsibility for the successful psychological healing of quake victims."

Zhang also said the number of professional mental health counselors in the quake zone is limited, and more are needed.

Huang Guoping, doctor of clinical psychology and director of the Psychological Crisis Intervention Center at Mianyang's No 3 People's Hospital, agreed.

Developing a nationwide network for psychological counseling and intervention is needed, because there has been an acute shortage of professional counselors who can really address quake victims' needs, he said.

"That could be achieved by promoting mental health education among the public and improving professional workers' training," Huang said.

"Once the public cultivates a proper understanding of psychological counseling, they will come to us when they face problems. And we also need professionals who are actually doctors to heal their wounds."