The earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria a few days ago left more than 29,000 people dead so far, at a time when the reactions of the rescued children mourned millions. A beautiful kiss in the air is perhaps the "kiss of life" as described by Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
Al-Jazeera Net interviewed Dr. Wafaa Muhammad Abu Musa, who specializes in psychological support for disasters and crises, and holds a PhD in psychological support in psychodrama, to explain the importance of psychological support for these children and the impact of this disaster on the survivors.
Dr. Wafaa Abu Musa: The patience of some children for the affliction results from the psychological structure and personal nature (Al-Jazeera)
Why do we notice the children coming out from under the rubble and after long hours of confinement under the dust and rocks, stunned, with their eyes open and not crying?
The first symptom of psychological trauma is the widening of the focus of the eyes and the standing of the hair of the head, and the child is silent, stunned, not speaking, and what we see apparent on the children of the earthquake survivors expresses the psychological trauma that they were subjected to in the first place.
Do symptoms of psychological trauma differ from one child to another?
The symptoms of psychological trauma differ from one event to another and according to what the child actually went through during this trauma. It also differs based on the personality of each child and his psychological structure that follows the environment in which he grew up and the circumstances he went through during the trauma.
Therefore, we find that there are children who received the shock in astonishment and lost consciousness, and children who received the shock through silence, dumbness, and complete insensitivity without any reaction. As for the third type, they are children who scream, cry, and express their pain.
Each type of trauma has a way to deal with it, but in all of them the child needs individual and group support and the opportunity to express what happened in various ways through psychodrama, drawing, expressive writing, storytelling, or others.
Every child has a story and a difficult scene that he lived under the rubble (Reuters)
How did children endure this affliction?
We noticed the calmness of some of them while answering the questions of their rescuers?
The patience of some children with this affliction is a result of their psychological structure and their personal nature. The shock is easier for the children whose parents hugged them during the earthquake or protected them from stones and dust falling on them. When these children emerge from under the rubble, their symptoms are different from the children whose parents died in front of them or whose parents were far from them.
Likewise, children who received care, attention, and a nurturing environment from parents are more capable of receiving trauma and are more courageous. As for children with a weak psychological structure, they receive it with grief, amazement, and intolerance, because their psychological capabilities are not strong to face the trauma.
What is the impact of some child survivors staying next to the dead bodies of their loved ones for many hours before rescue?
Every child has a story and a difficult scene that he lived under the rubble, and it was recorded in the soul and memory with black neural indicators and connections that are not easy to erase and can only be overcome with specialized psychological support.
This is very painful and has a great negative psychological impact, and despite receiving treatment and psychological support, it will remain a memory recorded forever in the brains of these children.
We noticed that the rescuers smiled at the children and tried to caress them very gently. How should the child be dealt with when he was found?
The smile of the rescuers at the survivors is a smile of life, salvation, and saving a soul that the surviving children receive as a smile of sympathy, support, and a new life despite the harshness of what happened.
The first thing that should be given to someone who is rescued from death - whether young or old - is to smile in his face, as it is the first step to safety, then wrap him in a blanket because he emerges from under the rubble shivering full of fear, and the feeling of fear needs safety and embracing.
We offer him balanced looks of sympathy that contain joy to save his life, silent sympathy, and give the child safety and support away from questions and excessive talk, because he is unable to answer and does not understand what happened with him.
After that, he is taken to a safe place and inspected for any wounds and any physical pain, then start checking on him and saying some expressions of support such as “Thank God for your safety”, “You are with us now”, “We are with you”.
The smile of the survivors is the first step in psychological treatment for disaster survivors (Reuters)
Given the difficulty of what these children have gone through, could they lose their childhood forever?
Children will never lose their childhood, but they interact with what they went through, each according to his personality and psychological structure. Some faced the situation with courage and helped the rescuers find him, and some suffered collapse.
However, due to the difficulty of the event, everyone will be affected despite the difference in their psyche and regardless of their strength. In the end, specialized psychological support is able to help and revive the souls of these children again despite the loss and pain they went through.
For children who have lost all their parents, what should we offer them?
We must be careful not to place these children in collective incubators known as "orphanages", especially in the early stages after saving their lives. Rather, we must create a completely safe environment far from any provocations, assaults or any kind of violence.
These children must be placed with families of their relatives or any other family prepared to help them. It is important at this stage for the child to feel the presence of the family after the loss of his family.
The child must live a normal life in a safe place for a period of at least two weeks, with the presence of specialists equipped for the reactions that may emerge from him during this period because it is the most important period after the trauma, during which the child begins to wake up from the trauma and the memory begins to recall what happened, in this A safe, specialized environment can help him overcome the trauma and great anguish he has been through.
But if we notice that the child behaves normally and does not have a reaction, this does not cause reassurance, because behind these normal behaviors there are many hidden psychological reactions that must be helped to express them through specialists.
If these children ask the philosophical question, "Why did this happen to us?"
What should we answer them?
Is it possible for these children to lose their faith?
When these children ask this kind of philosophical questions, we are content with silence, understanding their questions, patting them on the shoulders, and embracing them. We say to them, “You have a lot to be alive and to be well.” Knowing that children who are able to abstract and direct these questions are often over 12 years old, and here they must That our answer be sympathetic so that they can overcome this crisis and this type of questions.
What kind of psychological support is provided to these children in the short and long term?
Psychological support is considered as an “antibiotic” to overcome trauma and loss so that children can return to their normal lives. There are two types of psychological support:
The first: the initial psychological support provided by the rescuers, paramedics, and those who receive the child who survived the trauma, then he is placed in a safe place until he recovers from the trauma, which takes from 3 days to two weeks until he understands what happened, and the child needs sympathy mainly during this stage “practice stage Sorrow".
And the other: specialized psychological support that is provided to the child after two weeks or 10 days, depending on the symptoms and his apparent condition. Here, interaction is made with the child and an attempt is made to help him express trauma and crisis through some methods, as well as urging him to describe what happened with him of feelings and thoughts related to the earthquake.
Specialized support also helps the child to overcome the forms of post-traumatic stress disorder that have occurred to him, such as losing the ability to sleep, speak or overcome the stage of crying, images that persist in memory, loss of appetite, violent behavior, and other forms.
If the child behaves normally and does not react, he must be helped to express muffled psychological reactions (Reuters)
How long does it take these children to overcome this trauma?
Overcoming the crisis takes a long time, and specialists are the ones who determine that based on the condition of each child and according to the trauma he went through. In general, the initial overcoming is from one to two weeks, while overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder requires a year or more.
The time factor is important, and we must give the child his time to respond and make sure that what happens to him is not against his will, as this is a work of the brain and he has no power.
In the event that sufficient psychological support teams are not available to help these young people and they are not treated properly, what will happen to them in the future?
If children do not receive psychological support, then this means that we have saved them from inevitable death, bringing them into the stage of slow death.
Failure to provide psychological support to children exposes them to various types of disorders, such as appetite and sleep disorders, in addition to psychological weakness that turns his life into hell and becomes a dependent person. The child may also develop brain disorders, such as nightmares, bedwetting, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. .
God created us able to provide initial psychological support by instinct for those who are going through trauma and crisis, so neighbors and friends should provide this kind of simple support that depends on sympathy to help these children overcome the trauma, although this will be difficult and takes longer compared to specialized support.
Can these children be cured?
Of course, these children can be cured, God did not give them a new life to suffer, and despite what they went through, they have a chance to live and continue learning and self-care, what happened is a test and an ordeal, and behind every ordeal is a gift for these children.