PESHAWAR, Dec 15: The National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) on Thursday launched trauma and psychotherapy services for quake-hit people in Mansehra district. The UK-based chairman of British-Pakistani Psychiatrists Association, Dr Akmal Makhdum, and Dr Khalid Saeed trained dozens of volunteers, instructors, health workers and literacy staff in the Town Hall of Mansehra. Those trained in the workshop will act as master trainers and will, in turn, impart training of trauma management and psycho-therapy to selected members of the community.

The training was based on introductory techniques in grief counselling, problem solving, empathic listening and attentive listening skills and was divided into several sessions.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Akmal Makhdum said that almost every disaster results in trauma and psychological stresses among the victims.

“Although it is quite difficult to completely overcome psychological problems, we have to jointly work in this direction. Until and unless all members of the community join hands, we can not counter trauma”, Dr Akmal Makhdum said, adding that most of the people in Mansehra were affected, directly or indirectly, and volunteers had to focus all of them.

“These people need our special attention and we will have to sacrifice a lot of time for their rehabilitation. These people must be treated with care and due concentration”, he opined.

He said most of the quake-hit people in Mansehra were living in tent villages and need great care and attention for survival. He said volunteers of the NCHD were making consistent efforts to overcome trauma related problems of the inhabitants of tent villages.

Speaking on the occasion, district general manager of NCHD Riaz Hassan Khan said that the NCHD would leave no stone unturned to guarantee timely resumption of quake victims.

He said return of children to schools was a positive sign while their enrolment was increasing day by day.