PESHAWAR, Oct 10: Psychiatrists have urged the government and non-governmental organizations to gear up their efforts towards the rehabilitation of the people losing their relatives and friends in the devastating earthquake.

“Thousands of people have died in the Saturday’s quack. The relatives of the dead are in trauma due to acute grief. They need the services of psychiatrists, psychologists, NGOs and the community to recover from the shock,” said psychiatrist Dr Saeed Farooq, head of the psychiatry department of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), here on Monday.

Speaking at a function, organized by the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) to mark the Mental Health Day, he said rapid scientific advancements in the area of medical sciences had made the treatment of mental disorders possible.

Psychiatrist Dr Shujaat Ali Khan said emotion ran high when people saw blood scenes on natural calamities, which could be tackled through provision of the services of professional health workers to the victims.

Psychiatrist Dr Wajid Ali said natural calamities, including floods, earthquakes, etc., caused aftershocks that haunted people continuously.

People should take bomb blasts and natural calamities seriously and try to derive lessons from such tragic incidents, said Dr Zahid Nazar. They forgot such tragedies, which developed a host of mental disorders, he added.