Shortage of specialists to deal with post-disaster situations

For every 100 persons in the world, there are 1.2 psychiatrists and in India, the figure is 0.2. The average number of social workers globally is 0.4 and in India it is 0.03.

"There is a shortage of man power in dealing with psycho social problems that arise after disasters. We need to evolve a system to deal with it," NDMA Vice Chairman Shashidhar Reddy said at the national workshop on psycho-social support and mental health services during disasters.

The MLA from Andhra Pradesh said the geo thermal conditions in the country coupled with impacts of climate change globally are an indicator of the need to follow guidelines to deal with disasters as and when they strike.

National Disaster Management Guidelines were released by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad last year.

"No doubt the process of formulation of the guidelines is difficult. The real challenge, however, is implementing the guidelines. As there always seems to be a disconnect on the implementation level," Reddy said.

ICMR Secretary from the department of health research Dr V M Katoch said, "Post any disaster the effect on mental health is long lasting. Physical injury can be healed in some time but the trauma lasts for a long duration."

Recalling his experiences in the 2005 South Asian earthquake, 2007 China earthquake, United Nations Disaster Management Team National Convener David Mcloughlin said, "Coordinated action among government, non governmental agencies and civil population is required at the time any disaster strikes."