In J-K, NIMHANS training to handle post-quake trauma

The ruins and the tortured gashes in the mountain landscape left behind by last October8217;s Kashmir earthquake are still there for all to see8212;the physical remains of a catastrophe that killed people in their thousands and left millions homeless.

The ruins and the tortured gashes in the mountain landscape left behind by last October8217;s Kashmir earthquake are still there for all to see8212;the physical remains of a catastrophe that killed people in their thousands and left millions homeless. But what remains less obvious, but no less real, are the mental scars that many survivors have been left to live with8212;a condition medical people call post-disaster trauma.

With few mental health experts in the Valley, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences NIMHANS, Bangalore, and the Jammu and Kashmir government have decided to train about 600 professionals, including doctors, paramedics and health workers, to handle post-disaster trauma cases here. The training will start in the first week of April.

8216;8216;We will train them in the basics of mental health and psychiatry for post-disaster trauma. There8217;s a real need to train people to deal with such problems,8217;8217; said Dr D Nagaraja, Director, NIMHANS.

Although it8217;s a one-time training, NIMHANS will be in constant touch with the trainees and will exchange notes with them on happenings in the field every six months.

NIMHANS decided to take up the training after a need-assessment study by researchers on the field. 8216;8216;Our team in the Valley, which has been there since the earthquake, spoke to the state government after the study and it agreed to our suggestion,8217;8217; Nagaraja said.

The step is important in view of not only the recent quake, but also the continuing insurgency in a state that has been in violent turmoil for over a decade and a half. Figures furnished by the psychiatric hospital in Kashmir show that while about 2,000 people visited its OPD in 1989, the number crossed 50,000 in 2005. Of these, only 2 per cent were identified as psychotic cases; the rest were suffering from syndromes related to prolonged exposure to violence.

Sadly, the Valley has only 11 trained psychiatrists to handle the large number of people requiring their intervention. 8216;8216;These people can also help in identifying mental health problems in the general population and can refer them to experts. This, in a way, will solve one crisis,8217;8217; said Dr Nagaraja.