Mental health crisis looming for tsunami survivors

A University of Washington psychologist who just returned from Indonesia warns there is a new danger for survivors - a mental health crisis.

"We are seeing children petrified by seeing water in a tub or cowering when large airplanes are flying overhead because they sound like rushing water," said Randall Kyes, a research associate professor of psychology.

Kyes said both children and adults have been affected. Some children had begun to stop talking and adults were beginning to experience nightmares and severe insomnia. "The critical period is now and for the next six months. You don't meet a single person who didn't lose someone," said Kyes. Kyes spent a week in Banda Aceh, a city of 250,000 hit hard by the tsunamis, where he aided in setting up emergency psychological trauma centers and recovering bodies.

"People are past the tears and the immediate loss, and now reflection sets in and trauma is beginning to surface. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people, and that's just in the province of Aceh. The number jumps into the millions when you consider the scope of the disaster in all of the countries involved."

Kyes has been doing work in Indonesia for 15 years on a collaborative program between the University of Washington and Bogor Agricultural University.

"When you talk about a disaster of this scale, the extent of psychological damage is enormous," he said. "Many individuals may never totally recover and will have concerns and fear that will not be completely resolved. But if people can get treatment early on, the prognosis for improvement is much better.

"The real concern is for children. So many lost their families and have no support to reach out to for help. They really suffered twice, first the loss of parents and siblings and now coping with surviving the tsunami."

During his stay, Kyes gave several educational lectures on the importance of referring people who experienced problems to counselling services.

"I tried to emphasize in both my workshops and in dealings with victims that experiencing trauma is normal for anyone under these extreme circumstances and should not be viewed as a sign of weakness."

Kyes also helped recover bodies of victims. In the area of Aceh, 200 to 300 bodies are being recovered daily and this may continue for several months.

"People didn't drown. They were pummeled by debris in the water. There are still huge expanses of debris piled roughly 8 to 10 feet high with bodies buried in them. And there also are large tracts of land that are still flooded, making it difficult to recover bodies. I've done body recovery before, but the scale of this is unimaginable."

"The thing that surprised me the most was the extent of the devastation in human loss and to the physical loss in homes, boats and buildings. It never subsided. Every time I went out I was saying, 'My God, My God,'" Kyes said.