BACP Supports CounsellingResource.com Call for Volunteers

The BACP has responded very quickly and helpfully to our international effort (“International Effort to Offer Volunteer Counselling or Therapy Support to Those Affected by Tsunami”) to coordinate details of volunteer mental health professionals for international aid agencies and those affected by the southern Asia tsunami. The BACP’s press release follows below:

 

NEWS RELEASE From the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (6 January 2005)

BRITISH COUNSELLORS PLEDGE FREE SERVICES TO TSUNAMI SURVIVORS

Members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) have agreed to donate their services free to survivors of the Asian Tsunami disaster.

Thousands of hours have already been pledged and these will be made available to those in need abroad as well as in Britain.

A Special BBC1 documentary tonight at 9 o’clock called KILLER WAVE will feature the role of counselling in the aftermath of the devastation along the affected coasts.

BACP members are already at work in the affected zones.

One experienced practitioner, Carole Marco, formerly staff counsellor at the British Council who recently retired to Phuket, has been working non-stop for relief agencies since the area was hit. Carole is a special interviewee in this evening’s programme.

Medical authorities are agreed that the psychological wounds from this trauma are exceptionally severe. Coastal communities and families, which might otherwise have given comfort to the bereaved, have themselves been wiped out.

Jobs and livelihoods in Sumatra and Sri Lanka which might at least offer some familiar routine to the survivors have been destroyed. The sense that there may be ‘nothing left to live for’ is all too strong. Some children and adults sit rocking or mute. The incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder may finally be as high as 20% with the risk of suicide as high as 15%, according to some trauma experts (report to The London Times, January 5th, 2004).

For many, the worst torture is uncertainty. Not knowing what has happened to friends and relatives who are listed as missing. The tragedy is that the truth may never be known and full funeral rites can never be held.

The same applies to European holidaymakers and their families. The sense that human identity is erased in the mud recalls the worst slaughter of World War I although soldiers were at least given identity tags.

Nobody yet realises what this event has cost the world except in the possible number of lives. Will it change the nature of travel? Will it alter our relationship with the sea? Will local fishermen ever trust the waters again even if they are provided with new boats? Do any of us deep down want to be beside the seaside in that same old way?

More positively, will this cruel event finally convince us that there really is only one world and one humanity to which we all belong?

Focusing on trauma is not “putting Western feelings before Eastern lives”. Despite Western casualties, it is Eastern feelings which are least supported. Grief is not a contest.

The donation of counselling hours by mental health and other professionals is being co-ordinated through http://counsellingresource.com/tsunami/. This includes assistance to those living in affected countries, those who have lost loved ones in the natural disaster, and to aid workers bringing assistance to affected countries.

The resource is for qualified counsellors and psychotherapists who would be able to donate time by telephone, e-mail, or in person in affected countries. They will be able to register on this website with their particular skills, experience, and availability.

“There are more Sri Lankan psychiatrists in London than there are in Sri Lanka. These people have lost everything. Usually they rely on family support to deal with trauma. There is little else in the way of mental health treatment here” — Professor Andrew Dawson (report to The Australian newspaper, January 4th 2005).