Survivors seek counseling
2005-01-05 21:37
Bangkok - More than 1 600 tsunami survivors in Thailand have sought counseling to deal with anxiety, insomnia and flashbacks following the December 26 disaster - an unprecedented number for a society which normally shuns the help of mental health professionals, officials said on Wednesday.
Many of those seeking help have lost loved ones, said Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, director general of the Health Ministry's Department of Mental Health. He was part of team of professionals who travelled to hard-hit areas to offer assistance.
The outreach effort is unusual in remote rural areas where villagers simply have no history of seeking such help.
Professionals like Taweesin hope centers will be set up in hard-hit areas because problems will exist for years.
In the fishing village of Nam Khem in Phang Nga province - with 5 000 inhabitants - nearly every family lost members, Taweesin said. More than 2 000 have died or are missing.
The patients describe symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, nightmares and flashbacks, he said.
The mental state of children who survived the tsunami is also of great concern, he said. Many were traumatised not only by the event itself, but by the searches for the bodies of loved ones immediately afterward. Television footage of the disaster further exacerbated the trauma.
"Such pictures will be imprinted on their minds," he said.
The tsunami has killed more than 5 000 people in this Southeast Asian nation. Thousands have been left homeless.
- AP