First steps in long journey of healing
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Serdar Alyamaç
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 11, 2009 00:00
MARDİN - Mental health experts sound the rallying call for government and NGOs to support local women and children in the aftermath of last week’s mass murder. ’This is only the initial stage of a long process,’ says one psychologist.
Psychological counseling should be continuous and long term for women and children who survived the massacre of 44 people in their village in Southeast Turkey last week, according to experts involved in the organizations that have mobilized to bring help to the victims.
Psychologists Nazan Ürkmez and Cumhur Amasyalı and children’s specialist Suan Kantoğlu arrived in the village on Saturday as part of the "Aile İçi Şiddete Son" [End to Intra-Family Violence] campaign and spoke to the villagers. Ürkmez, who was part of the efforts to help the trauma victims after the 1999 Marmara earthquake, the al-Qaeda bombings in Istanbul on Nov. 15 and 20 in 2003, and last year’s Güngören bombing in Istanbul, said the mobilization of resources was proceeding in an organized manner.
"I have been working in such environments for a long time. This time around, the response was more planned and modern. Work was done to organize the response. Every team that comes here is inserted into the process," she said. Speaking about her interviews with the families of the alleged attackers, she said: "All of them are very worried and do not know what to do. They are worried about their security. They need to be assured of their safety as soon as possible."
Any support or protection given to the families needs to be on a permanent basis, she said. "My knowledge of the region is limited, but if the state provides the resources to train psychologists and teachers to address the needs of the Bilge villagers, improvements may be seen."
She added, "However, these need to be on a long-term basis. Those who have come from the outside will leave soon but the psychologists in the region will counsel the villagers on a permanent basis," she said.
The head of the organizing team for the resources for the village, Psychologists’ Association Director Nedret Öztan, said he and his team had been at the village since last Wednesday. "After the first few chaotic days, everything has stabilized," he said.
When asked about the state of mind of the children, he said: "We are constantly together with the children and that’s why it is hard to say anything. However, according to the response we receive from outside, there is a marked improvement of their mental state when compared to the first few days."
He said the needs of the adults were very different from the children. "Currently, we are focused on cooperation and mutual respect. We can’t apply therapy on the children at the moment. We believe they will improve faster but we can’t be sure what will happen in reality. Everyone needs to understand the fact that this is only the initial stage of a long process. The key issue is what is to be done next. We are planning our short-term and long-term response."
120 children
Psychologist Meltem Kılıç from the Psychosocial Services Association explained the work they were now doing. "We have divided the support groups for children into two; one for children of ages up to 12 and the other for children aged between 12 and 18," she said.
"We have separated the children from the families of the victims and those from the families of the alleged culprits. There are around 50 children from the families of the suspects. We could only recently apply psychosocial intervention on them because we didn’t know if they were staying or leaving. There are around 70 children on the side of the victims. Some 33 lost one or more of their parents."
She said 24 experts were currently engaged in psychological counseling, with more experts expected to arrive today. "We don’t need more people for now. Our association’s coordination efforts will last another week before new teams are established and replace us," she said. She said the effort
Psychologists Nazan Ürkmez and Cumhur Amasyalı and children’s specialist Suan Kantoğlu arrived in the village on Saturday as part of the "Aile İçi Şiddete Son" [End to Intra-Family Violence] campaign and spoke to the villagers. Ürkmez, who was part of the efforts to help the trauma victims after the 1999 Marmara earthquake, the al-Qaeda bombings in Istanbul on Nov. 15 and 20 in 2003, and last year’s Güngören bombing in Istanbul, said the mobilization of resources was proceeding in an organized manner.
"I have been working in such environments for a long time. This time around, the response was more planned and modern. Work was done to organize the response. Every team that comes here is inserted into the process," she said. Speaking about her interviews with the families of the alleged attackers, she said: "All of them are very worried and do not know what to do. They are worried about their security. They need to be assured of their safety as soon as possible."
Any support or protection given to the families needs to be on a permanent basis, she said. "My knowledge of the region is limited, but if the state provides the resources to train psychologists and teachers to address the needs of the Bilge villagers, improvements may be seen."
She added, "However, these need to be on a long-term basis. Those who have come from the outside will leave soon but the psychologists in the region will counsel the villagers on a permanent basis," she said.
The head of the organizing team for the resources for the village, Psychologists’ Association Director Nedret Öztan, said he and his team had been at the village since last Wednesday. "After the first few chaotic days, everything has stabilized," he said.
When asked about the state of mind of the children, he said: "We are constantly together with the children and that’s why it is hard to say anything. However, according to the response we receive from outside, there is a marked improvement of their mental state when compared to the first few days."
He said the needs of the adults were very different from the children. "Currently, we are focused on cooperation and mutual respect. We can’t apply therapy on the children at the moment. We believe they will improve faster but we can’t be sure what will happen in reality. Everyone needs to understand the fact that this is only the initial stage of a long process. The key issue is what is to be done next. We are planning our short-term and long-term response."
120 children
Psychologist Meltem Kılıç from the Psychosocial Services Association explained the work they were now doing. "We have divided the support groups for children into two; one for children of ages up to 12 and the other for children aged between 12 and 18," she said.
"We have separated the children from the families of the victims and those from the families of the alleged culprits. There are around 50 children from the families of the suspects. We could only recently apply psychosocial intervention on them because we didn’t know if they were staying or leaving. There are around 70 children on the side of the victims. Some 33 lost one or more of their parents."
She said 24 experts were currently engaged in psychological counseling, with more experts expected to arrive today. "We don’t need more people for now. Our association’s coordination efforts will last another week before new teams are established and replace us," she said. She said the effort