|
 
Dr. Syed Arshad Husain
talks with orphans in the Akhora Khattak camp for Afghani
refugees in northern Pakistan. Barbara Bauer photo
|
MU Center to Aid
Tsunami Victims
By Ferdous Al-Faruque
Syed Arshad Husain has a well-earned reputation
for going into war-torn and disaster-stricken areas. He's been
to Pakistan, India, Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait. He's been to Kosovo
14 times and Bosnia 25 times.
Now he and a five- to six-member team from
MU's International
Center for Psychosocial Trauma will leave this month and travel
to Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and then on to Pakistan, to deal with
what could be called the second wave of trauma for the child survivors
of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Husain's special interest is helping children
deal with the after-effects of war or natural disasters—the
kind of long-term trauma that makes child earthquake survivors
want to keep their feet off the ground. After the Gujarat earthquake
in India that killed almost 100,000 people five years ago,
Husain observed in his work there that children developed a
phobia of the ground.
"Whenever they put their feet on the ground,
they felt shakes and vibrations," Husain said. "It would frighten
them, and they felt another earthquake was coming."
What the child survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami
will experience could be similar, except their fears may specifically
focus on water.
At the moment, the tsunami survivors are just
struggling to make it through each day, Husain said. But as food,
water, and other necessities come in and people begin to rebuild
their lives, the psychological effects will become very intense,
he said.
"Once all this passes with time they have
to confront their losses," he said. "That's when depression, sadness,
hopelessness and a total sense of loss will set in."
"That's where our role comes," Husain said.
"We have to help them go through this bereavement and help them
capture hope for the future."
Dr. Husain interviews
a young boy in Gaza City, Palestine, to demonstrate effective
techniques for an audience of mental health professionals.
The boy is wearing an ear piece for translation purposes.
Jeffrey Hoelscher photo
|
Without intervention, survivors can develop
post-traumatic stress syndrome and suicidal tendencies, he said.
Children, such as the survivors of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,
may become hyper-vigilant, hyperactive and unable to concentrate
on schoolwork.
Husain, the chief of child
psychiatry at MU, said he was still putting together the
finances and the team for the trip. He hoped the University
and two non-profit organizations-Mercy Malaysia, a Malaysian
relief organization, and Doctors Worldwide, a U.K.-based
charity—would provide the
financial backing.
By Wednesday, he had already asked two members
of the team from the International Center for Psychosocial Trauma
to join him-MU psychologist and professor emeritus Wayne Anderson
and local psychologist Barbara Bauer. The center, which Husain
founded in 1994 as a response to the Bosnian war, focuses on
training mental health professionals and teachers to work with
psychologically traumatized children.
Bauer said she will go, her 14th such trip.
She has been to Bosnia, Kosovo, , Russia, Jordan and Turkey. She
has paid out of her own pocket to join the team in the past when
donations from various nonprofit organizations and individuals
have fallen short. Bauer hopes that's not the case this time.
"We can use a lot more donations," she said.
On her first trip to Bosnia, she was afraid
because the country was in the middle of a civil war. "But the
fear goes away after awhile," she said.
The team's first stop could be Kuala Lumpur.
There, a "training the trainers program" will be set up to teach
people to train others to help traumatized children. Similar
trips to Bosnia-25 over a five-year period-with a team that
grew from two to 17 members were a great success, Husain said.
Faculty and staff at
MU's International Center for Psychosocial Trauma hold weeklong
intensive summer institutes to train mental health professionals,
social workers and teachers to help children cope with post-disaster
trauma. Jeffrey Hoelscher photo
|
"We trained 2,000 teachers who had an impact
on 20,000 children," he said.
He hopes that his team will be able to train
50 to 100 people at a time in the stricken region.
Teaching locally-based providers of psychiatric
care is crucial in areas that have very few. India, for example,
with a population of 1 billion, has fewer than 4,000 psychiatrists,
and Indonesia with 240 million people has fewer than 400, according
to the World Health Organization.
"In contrast, the United States has 260 million
people, and there are 52,000 psychiatrists," Husain said.
Born in Delhi, Husain has his own, keen childhood
memories of violence. As a 9-year-old, he witnessed the religious
riots that accompanied India's partition in 1947. He and his family
became refugees and moved to the newly created Muslim state, Pakistan.
Although he said he was resilient enough not to be affected by
what he saw, the experience helped him connect with children and
influenced his life's work.
Children of trauma "have intrusive thoughts,
nightmares of events, flashbacks, and hyper vigilance," he said.
"They are constantly watching for any other catastrophe."
Note: This Jan. 6, 2005, article has been
republished with permission from the Columbia Missourian.
For the names of relief agencies and how to contribute to the efforts
of the International Center for Psychosocial Trauma, please visit
the MU International Center's web site.
Archives
| Comments | Home SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscribe
| Change Your
Address | Unsubscribe
Copyright © 2009 — Curators of the University of Missouri
DMCA and other copyright information.
All rights reserved.
An equal opportunity/ADA institution.
Published by the Mizzou Alumni Association
Questions? Comments? E-mail comments@mizzoualumni.org
Last Update:
July 2, 2009
|
