Society

After the tragedy, the trauma still a challenge

By Hu Yinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-17 06:45

INSIDE THE DISASTER ZONE

Editor's note: Chen Wuyi, vice-president of Chengdu Hydropower Investigation, Design and Research Institute, and a deputy to the National People's Congress, spent an entire year in the Sichuan earthquake zone helping with the disaster relief eff orts.

The earthquake caused huge psychological trauma to those who lost family members. Many people's lives were changed dramatically, especially those in families who lost their main breadwinner.

The shock was even greater for those pulled out of the rubble and it may take years for them to fully recover from the nightmare.

Although I am not a psychological expert, I believe that, two years on from the disaster, the mental state of the general public has returned to a peaceful one. However, some of the most vulnerable groups still need more time to recover.

The massive reconstruction work, as well as the donations that have come from all over China and overseas, have been a great boost to efforts to help the mental recovery of survivors. Financial aid has helped people iron out their worries about basic necessities, allowing them to concentrate on moving forward.

For the farmers who lost their land in the disaster, local governments have not only built them new homes but are working to arrange new farmland or woodland for them. This will enable them to make a living independently and start a new life.

Following the earthquake, people have become much more aware of the issue of safety. I'm always asked questions such as, "Is my house still on the geological fracture zones?" or "How can we improve house structures?"

This shows that people now want to live a better quality life knowing they are safe.

CHEN WUYI WAS TALKING TO LI JING

A survey of Beichuan officials by the CAS crisis intervention center last year found almost 40 percent of cadres were suffering severe post-traumatic stress, while another 11 percent were depressed. Across the province, more than 2,500 officials who lost at least one relative have been transferred to either less demanding posts or richer regions, Sichuan News Network reported.

Zhang at the CAS has urged the government to create an agency to facilitate, manage and coordinate the long-term psychological rehabilitation of victims in Sichuan, as well as provide financial and policy support for the groups involved. A recent China Association for Promoting Democracy report also said: "Two decades on from the Tangshan earthquake (in 1976), survivors still illustrated significant levels of post-traumatic stress disorder."

Due to poor construction quality, many school buildings collapsed during the Wenchuan earthquake, killing thousands of students. Those who survived were left with serious psychological trauma and some have since abandoned education, say mental health experts.

Dong Ya, 19, a former student at the now-iconic Xuankou Middle School in Yingxiu, was transferred with her classmates to a school in Changzhi, Shanxi province, after the disaster. She returned home after graduating last November and is refusing to go to college.

"I don't want anything to do with school anymore," said the teenager, who lost three relatives and many more friends on May 12. "Some of my classmates are going to college. I don't get them."

Students and teachers at Beichuan Middle School, where more than 1,500 people were killed in 2008, are now reeling from another tragedy: the brutal murder of a student by his classmate.

Authorities say that, on the morning of Jan 4, 10th-grader Mu Zhipeng, 16, walked into a dorm room and allegedly cut Li Haolong's throat with a knife for no apparent reason. Although officials insist the boys were strangers, China Daily was told by anonymous police sources in Mianyang - the school's temporary base during reconstruction - and an aid worker at the school that Mu and Li did know each other and that the killing stemmed from a violent clash.

The incident sparked furious criticism in the media over the effectiveness of mental assistance offered to victims of the earthquake. However, Long Di, head of the CAS psychological aid program at Beichuan Middle School, blamed the country's ultra-competitive education system.

Students and teachers are so focused on obtaining better marks that it leaves them no time to "nurture hearts and connect to life", she said in an exclusive interview. "People at the school have been hostile to one another for a while."

Beichuan Middle School runs to a tight schedule between 6:30 am and 10:30 pm. Students in the 12th grade, which the CAS team is chiefly responsible for helping, have 13 classes a day - "a trauma in itself", said Long, who warned that without time alone to come to terms with the disaster, no amount of investment can help them to truly heal.

Seven of the 10 classes that made up what is now the 12th grade were wiped out when the earthquake hit, according to official statistics.

"There's so much pressure that people can't find ways to tolerate one another. Our schools are now competitive places, not places that offer support," said Long. "Most people (here) lack educational resources to begin with (compared with urban students), and after a trauma like this, they're bound to appear unconfident."