BENGALURU: While Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union territory Delhi have approached the department of Psychosocial Support in Disaster Management at NIMHANS to train their first responders, the Karnataka State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) officials haven’t gone to the premier institute to seek psychosocial support to their first responders, despite the centre situated in Bengaluru.
This shows a lack of community preparedness in the government to help people during natural disasters, said Dr Jayakumar C from the Department of Psychosocial support in Disaster Management at NIMHANS. He told TNIE, “Every year, Mangaluru, Uttara Kannada and other parts of the state face natural disasters like floods, landslides and drought that impact thousands of families.
While the state government announces relief to the affected, there is no module or training provided to first responders in these areas on how to help people when they are traumatised by these incidents. Other states have done it and they are implementing it. But NIMHANS, despite being in Bengaluru, has not received any correspondence from KSDMA so far.”
The faculty from the Psychosocial Support in Disaster Management faculty visited Odisha, which is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, to understand the needs of people working in SDRF teams.
Jayakumar said, “Soon after rescuing people during natural disasters, SDRF members are deployed on other duties. There is no time for them to recover or process mentally what happened in the disaster. We have prepared a module that can cater to the needs of SDRF officials, panchayat members, residents, teachers, doctors and trained people from all these departments to speak to any of the first responders to validate that what they have gone through is important; however, it is more important to return to normal in life.”
Jayakumar said most of them grieve over losing their loved ones for two to six months and resume their routine, others still remain in the belief that their loved ones would come back one day. “They are in denial about the death. As a result, some remain traumatised, depressed, get addicted to drinking and smoking, leading to cognitive impairments and more,” he added.
An official from the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority said, “Currently, the department follows the norms framed by NDMA. But I agree there is a need to have a full-fledged training module to provide psychosocial support to first responders.”
LENDING SUPPORT
In In the past one year, the department of Psychosocial Support in Disaster Management has trained people from health, education and other departments in Wayanad to help people who lost their loved ones in the 2024 landslides. They have also trained Odisha SDMA officials and National Disaster Response Force officials who were involved in the rescue operations in the Myanmar earthquake and foreign nationals from Fiji Island.