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Healing deeper scars

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-22 07:22

Physical injuries are easier to heal than wounded minds and souls. To help survivors clear their minds of the shadow of the earthquake may prove to be a harder task than to cure their physical wounds.

A child rescued from the rubble refused to talk to anyone and even to its grandmother. Nightmares are reported to wake up some students from their sleep. But these are only some of the light symptoms of the psychic trauma that the earthquake has inflicted on them. The post-traumatic stress disorder can last for quite a long time for some survivors, particularly for those who have lost their loved ones, and can even seriously affect their normal lives.

Fortunately, psychologists have been commissioned and sent to the disaster areas. And some voluntary psychologists went there on their own to provide counsel for local residents.

A program was launched by several departments to call on volunteers to write to children in the quake-affected areas as friends, letting them feel that they are not alone in fighting their difficulties. It has been sensible for both governments and non-governmental organizations to place timely psychological intervention high on their agenda for disaster relief work.

Rehabilitation from psychic trauma will help disaster-affected people better recover from their injuries. It is also instrumental to their regaining confidence in life and finally in the reconstruction of their homes.

How well the affected people can be helped out of their psychological shock will have a long-term impact on the future of disaster relief work and the prospect of reconstruction of the devastated areas.

The rescuers, including the People's Liberation Army soldiers, armed police officers and volunteers from different walks of life, also need mental health care. Many of them had no training in psychologically dealing with the horrible scenes that they had never witnessed before. The death of their fellow citizens in their arms and the unbearable sufferings of those buried in the rubble would obviously cast dark shadows on the minds of many of them.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of timely and effective care of the psychological needs of both the survivors and many of the rescuers.

(China Daily 05/22/2008 page9)