The Hindu : Karnataka News : NIMHANS trains volunteer counsellors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

NIMHANS trains volunteer counsellors

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, FEB. 8. More than 1,200 volunteers from different organisations have been trained to deal with the psychiatric needs of survivors of the tsunami by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) here. The institute trained 150 persons who, in turn, trained these volunteers and another batch of trainers is going through the process, the Director and Vice-Chancellor of NIMHANS, K. Nagaraja, told presspersons here today.

NIMHANS has been designated by the Government of India as the nodal agency for looking after the psychiatric needs of the tsunami survivors. On its own it provided psychiatric counselling in the immediate aftermath of the disaster in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala.

"We have been able to provide one trained person to counsel around 100 persons in the affected areas," Dr. Nagaraja said. The trained volunteers include schoolteachers, health professionals and panchayat members. They look out for symptoms and refer the persons for psychiatric treatment where necessary.

"Most survivors who have lost their close relatives or most of their possessions to the tsunami need psychiatric rehabilitation to handle their emotional trauma. The period of acute stress may now be over for most of them, but post-traumatic stress disorders will come up. From conditions like shock and uncontrolled weeping they make go into a state of acute anxiety," Dr. Nagaraja said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka