ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army has requested that the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) formulate a strategy on an emergency basis for Peshawar massacre survivors to help them cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Health Director General (DG) Dr Asad Hafeez told The Express Tribune that after considering the request, the ministry had constituted a committee to formulate a counselling strategy for survivors and parents.
The Ministry of Health has approached Unicef and many other such organisations to assist Pakistan in formulating the strategy, and a meeting has been called on Saturday (today) to discuss it, he said.
Dr Hafeez said that individuals would be trained by professionals who would go to Peshawar for counselling the children and their parents.
“The strategy would be similar to the one for survivors of the 2005 earthquake,” he said.
Rizwan Taj, head of psychiatry at Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (Pims) and a member of the committee, said that considering the ages of the survivors and the nature of the incident, counselling would not be an easy job.
He said the children were in states of severe shock, depression, anxiety and emotional pain because they had seen their classmates, relatives, siblings and teachers brutally killed in front of them.
“It will not be easy for them to forget, but all possible efforts will be made to help them deal with this,” Taj said.
Sharing the short-term impact of the incident on mental health, he said survivors may begin to suffer anxiety, sleeping and eating disorders, or similar problems.
In the long-term, Taj said children are at risk of going into isolation, developing a fear of socialising, and feel scared to go to school.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2014.
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my children :(