As many as 909 people have been referred to the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) of the Health Department for mental health support in the wake of the devastation caused by floods in the State last month.
The Women and Child, Health, Social Justice and Education Departments and the Bengaluru-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences together started providing psychosocial first aid to people in the 11 affected districts around the time of the floods itself.
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Kavitha P., coordinator of the Kaaval project of the Social Justice Department, said, “The psychosocial first aid, started on August 23, was aimed at reducing stress among the people by helping them talk about it, understanding how the disaster affected their lives, and allowing them to go ahead with their lives with hope.”
As many as 83,028 survivors have been provided psychosocial support by September 5. Individual sessions were conducted for 29,614 people, and group sessions for 2,606. This was done by visits to camps and households by DMHP teams in districts, assisted by over 1,000 social work volunteers of the Kaaval programme and MSW students and others such as ASHA workers and school counsellors.
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The next stage is psychosocial care to help people return to their routines. In the case of children, this involves going to play and returning to school. This necessitates a multisectoral approach involving family, school, mental and physical health care, advocacy and legal support system, and so on as counselling alone will not help.
Behaviour of children, Dr. Kavitha said, was observed for reactions not present prior to the disaster such as moodiness, destructive behaviour, or inability to sit still. This was addressed or the children referred for mental health support.
Subair K.K., Probation Officer, Ernakulam, said psychosocial care would need to be provided for the long-term in some parts of the affected districts, and the process was already under way.
Data collected
“Data have been collected by Nimhans after speaking to people in the affected areas.
These details on their mental and social problems will be consolidated, and activities planned on its basis for specific interventions.”
This will be done through community-based and school-based interventions in association with UNICEF and SCERT. Focus will be on reaching out to women and children through ASHA and Kudumbashree workers and teachers and counsellors.