Situ Gintung Need Trained for Mental Health

Experts agree that when a natural disaster of the magnitude of the Situ Gintung hits a community, psychological, cognitive, and somatic symptoms of distress may be evident in the affected population (Vijaykumar et al., 2006). However, unavailability of sufficiently trained mental health professionals and the loss of schools and infrastructure can hamper intervention programs (Math, Girimaji, et al., 2006). In an emergency situation, efforts need to be made to provide training in intervention techniques. The media "vividly

portrayed the importance of emotional support and psychological interventions" (p. 226) and helped spread the word on the importance of attending to survivors' mental health. "Keeping in mind that a vast majority of the affected population needs only minimal support in normalizing their lives, it was believed that relief workers involved in providing material relief could be trained in psychological intervention techniques" (Vijaykumar et al., 2006, p. 226). Relief workers - people from the general public, from youth organizations, and college students - were given quick training so that they would be able to attend to some of the psychological needs. In order to deal fully with such complex emotional issues of personal loss and tragedy, expertise is necessary; in the absence of experts, however, it was important to provide some training to the relief workers/ volunteers before they had direct contact with survivors.