Newswise — On Dec. 26, 2004, more than 283,000 people died when a massive undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. In an effort to help survivors deal with the aftermath, doctors from the University of Missouri-Columbia's International Center for Psychosocial Trauma trained specialists to provide ongoing help and began the process of establishing a permanent psychological help center in Asia.
"Unfortunately, our work is expanding due to man-made conflicts as well as natural catastrophes," said Arshad Husain, director of the center. "Fortunately, we have a large group of professionals from across the nation who are ready to go whenever we need them. Because our team has now grown beyond the reaches of our state, we are able to help many more of those in need."
When the disaster struck in south Asia, Husain said that he knew there would be a need for the kind of help his center provides due to the psychological consequences. Based on the current research of trauma victims, Husain and his team have developed a curriculum that helps people understand and effectively deal with the trauma they are experiencing.
"Whether it is man-made or natural, research has shown us that there are a lot of commonalities that humans experience following such a tragedy," Husain said. "With war or natural disasters, humans experience death, destruction and displacement. As soon as we heard about the tsunami, we sent word that we would be ready to help."
Husain said that early intervention is a major factor in providing help to victims. If victims do not receive the proper care quickly, the psychological damage can be permanent. Chronic diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can produce physical changes in the brain, including lesions, making it problematic for anyone to help. This permanent damage can lead to major problems in the victim's life, including inflicting harm on others. However, not everyone is affected by PTSD. Husain completed research in Bosnia on 791 children and found that 40 percent of the children developed PTSD upon experiencing atrocities associated with war in that region.
The other difficulty that Husain and his team have found common among these disaster stricken areas is that many of them have very rudimentary mental health services. For example, Sri Lanka has a population of about 20 million, but only has 12 psychiatrists for the entire country, or one psychiatrist for every 1.6 million people. By comparison, the United States, with a population of roughly 260 million, has 52,000 psychiatrists, 300,000 psychologists and 80,000 social workers, or one health professional for every 600 people. Yet, the United States still is facing a shortage of health care workers.
Once they had arrived in the tsunami-strickened areas, Husain and his team began a series of 3-day workshops where they trained teachers to look for signs of trauma in children and how to deal with that trauma. MU team members found that the people who were there knew very little about psychological problems and were encountering difficult situations such as children who would not take a bath or who were afraid of helicopter sounds, an increased suicide rate, and people who were afraid to flush the toilet because of the sound of rushing water.
"Our training helped to provide these teachers with a foundation so they could start dealing with the trauma they were experiencing," Husain said. "We had them practice from their own experiences with children. Some of the symptoms they described included flashbacks, hyper-arousal such as feeling tremors when no tremors existed, avoidance and numbing. Following the workshop, we demonstrated techniques the teachers could use to talk with children about their trauma."
Some of those techniques included play therapy, art therapy or drawing pictures of the experience, relaxation and developing a plan for a safe place. By having children develop a plan in case of danger, officials gave the children a sense of empowerment should the danger strike again.
"In the United States, we have drills all the time to deal with disasters, but these drills don't exist in other places," Husain said. "We taught these people to utilize these techniques to give them power in their lives. Trauma can induce fear over non-control of the situation. When we instill some control in their lives, the effects of that trauma can be lessoned."
While there is still much work to be done, Husain credits the enormous outpouring of support for his team's success. While many individuals have donated money, others have provided valuable services. For example, over the course of 3 days, one group of MU international students translated 81 pages of training material for Husain's team. While Husain is planning his next trip to the area to "train the trainers" within the next two months, his team also is working on building a permanent psychosocial center in the area, so that those who continue to need help will receive it.
For more information about Husain's work and the center, visit http://www.muhealth.org/~umicpt/
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