The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Plan to restore mental health of tsunami-affected

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Plan to restore mental health of tsunami-affected

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, FEB. 1. The Academy for Disaster Management Education, Planning and Training (ADEPT) and its partners along with the district administration have developed a long-term plan to restore mental health in the tsunami-affected areas of Cuddalore district.

In the first stage, community volunteers and health workers will be sensitised to the importance of family and community networks both in reaction to disaster and recovery.

In the second stage, community self-help groups will be formed with the objective of mitigating post-disaster stress, providing psychosocial support and developing the community socially and economically.

In the third stage, coordination hubs will be formed to monitor the ongoing programme and develop it to conduct cooperative activities with other relief operations.

Training programmes

As part of the first stage, the ADEPT team and the district health and education administration launched a series of training programmes recently at the Bishop Peter Training Institute where 50 teachers from Government schools were roped in.

The teachers were trained in identifying children who were psychologically affected by the tsunami and providing psychological first-aid at the school and community level.

According to experts, one of the biggest problems faced by mental health teams is the rejection of professional help.

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