Victims facing trauma due to floods and landslides in the Indian state of Kerala are now receiving community-based care, thanks to authorities and health experts stepping in to bring psychosocial support closer to those in need.
Community health centers in the Kerala state are now offering a District Mental Health Program to provide better psychological assistance, triggering an increase in the number of patients from 14,000 in 2018 to 25,000 the year after.
Idukki, Kerala faced destructive monsoon rains and flash floods this month, killing at least five people and forcing 1,400 others to evacuate. Locals had yet to recover from last year’s disastrous landslides demolishing houses and causing 51 deaths. But thanks to the Kerala government’s efforts to better manage mental health problems – deploying around 17,650 mental health workers and setting up a free counselling helpline – experts have been able to act quicker than ever.
“Scrupulous intervention in relief camps, schools and door-to-door visits helped us to find 50 people suffering (from) flood-related mental disorder,” says Joe Sunny, mental health doctor at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, whose experts visited houses all over the flooded and damaged Mariyapuram village in Idukki, offering assistance to around 1,000 survivors.
