Plan for mental treatment to Savar victims

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 May 2013, 08:50 AM
Updated : 15 May 2013, 08:51 AM

The government is going to take a two-year plan to ensure psychological treatment of the Savar building collapse survivors, according to Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque.

He said the survivors would need ‘psycho-social’ treatment to return to their normal life.

The World Health Organisation would assist the government in this regard, he said adding that psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers would work ‘concertedly’ to manage their post-traumatic disorder.

The National Institute of Mental Health will coordinate the treatment, he told journalists replying to a question after a view-exchange meeting at the Secretariat.
The minister exchanged views with the directors and owners of the hospitals and clinics that had provided services to the victims who were pulled alive from the debris of the nine-storey building that collapsed on Apr 24.
More than 1,100 people, mostly women garment workers, died in the worst disaster of its kind in the country.
The minister said about 1,900 people injured in the incident received emergency first-aid.
He said 286 workers are undergoing treatment in 29 hospitals and clinics in Dhaka and Savar now. Of them, 180 are receiving treatments at eight government health facilities.
According to him, many of the injured lost limbs being trapped inside the debris.
He said: “Once they recover from their physical wounds, we’ll start assessing them [for psychological management].”
The minister thanked Savar hospitals and clinics for their immediate response. “Many lives are saved due to immediate management,” he said.
He reiterated his government’s commitment to continue treatment of the victims ‘as long as they need’.
Haque said many countries including Thailand, Malaysia and some in European Union showed their interest to provide artificial limbs to the victims.