ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Health experts and psychologists here on Thursday called for extended psychological counselling of the earthquake survivors in order to make them spend normal lives again. They were speaking at the second phase of workshops on psychological and trauma counselling of earthquake victims organized by the National Task Force constituted by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

They warned that the trauma of the destruction could haunt the survivors for years and in many cases for the rest of their lives if proper counselling was not provided to them.

The counselling is necessary to bring the survivors into the mainstream and make them contribute to society. They said it was always hard to make people forget their traumatic past; however, it was not impossible to make them believe that all these mishaps were just part of life and that future always held hope for them.

Inaugurating the workshop, Parliamentarians Committee on Human Rights’ chief MNA Riaz Fatyana highlighted the need and significance of psychological and trauma counselling for the victims.

Chief Psychologist of the NTF Dr Shoaib Shahid spoke on how to get out of the fear of an earthquake in respect to its importance to mental and emotional health.

He said the post-traumatic stress disorder, patients experienced humiliation, rejection, emotional numbness, irritability and sleep disturbances.

Consultant psychologist Nasra Jamil highlighted personality type and impacts of trauma. She said severe trauma could have a major impact on the course of life leading to disruption of personality.

Ghulam Murtaza Bodla, Vice-President of Pakistan Psychological Association; Dr Iftikhar N. Hassan and Dr Shoaib Shahid also spoke.

More than 35 persons including psychologists, social workers and volunteers attended the workshop.