Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli   

Steps to provide healing touch

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUNELVELI, MARCH 22. A three-day training programme commenced here today to educate instructors, who, after successful completion of training, would treat tsunami victims to help them come out of the stress.

Though the victims are getting relief materials in adequate quantity from all quarters, the loss of lives could not be compensated by any means and hence the government has decided to provide a healing touch to the victims in the form of psychological care. Under this programme, the Department of Social Welfare has selected 100 representatives from the government departments and non-governmental organisations of Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Tuticorin districts for the three-day training programme.

Inaugurating the programme, the Tirunelveli Collector, Atul Anand, said tsunami victims, who were in a negative frame of mind after the `Black Sunday,' desperately needed psychological support.

The trainers should provide the much-needed willpower to the victims so that they would come out of it to start a new phase with new boats, fish-gear, houses etc., he noted adding yoga and meditation would be of great help in the process of bringing back normalcy in the life of affected people.

Psychiatrist, Balagurusamy, said the victims might consume alcohol for a `temporary escape' from the trauma caused by the tsunami and the present training would help the instructors to bail out the affected population. "They are not in a state of mind to accept the loss they suffered, particularly loss of lives. Most of them still believe that their loved ones were not killed in the catastrophe and would return one day. We, employing the techniques we learn in this training programme, should gradually bring back to normalcy these grief-stricken people," Dr. Balagurusamy said.

The District Revenue Officer, G. Loganathan, the Dean, Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital, R. Saraswathi, the Deputy Director, Department of Health Services, Tirunelveli, K.A. Meera Mohideen, Head, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, P. Madhava Somasundaram, and others spoke.

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