Dr. Tapas Kumar Ray, founder of the Calcutta, India-based non-governmental organization SEVAC, presented his organization’s work on Relief Efforts in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after the December 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. This remote area is under direct rule by the Government of India, with 572 big and small islands, only 36 of which are inhabited. The total population is around 500,000, and includes a considerable number of aboriginal groups. The tsunami left 6,924 dead and 38,881 homeless, with great loss of property, damage to infrastructure, fertile land under salt water, fishing boats wrecked, and tourism destroyed. The local economy was wiped out. The Government of India invited SEVAC to work in the relief camps, to provide care to aged people and to children who had lost their families, to adults who had lost their property and livelihoods, and to people with pre-existing mental illnesses. The NGO set up one psychiatric clinic in each camp. In addition to providing individual care. its workers provided mental health education for nurses and established play therapy for children.
The islands had only one psychiatrist before the disaster. SEVAC was able to send psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers on rotation from the mainland to staff the clinics, despite enormous transport difficulties in reaching the islands. An intense effort was maintained for three months and has continued since then at a lower level, especially in Car Nicobar island, where there was widespread devastation. There, SEVAC is caring for more than one hundred people who had psychiatric problems before the tsunami. The 100-bed hospital has no psychiatric department.
Dr. Ray recounted that his organization was amazed when Preston Garrison, Secretary General and CEO of the World Federation for Mental Health, agreed to visit the islands from 4 to 8 March 2005. WFMH was able to direct donations from its member organizations, some individuals members, and other supporters, to support SEVAC’s work. These donations, though modest overall, were very important in supporting what was accomplished.
The main problem now is the lack of ongoing resources to continue the work, which may end in the near future for lack of funds. Professionals who provided volunteer assistance in the emergency cannot continue to do so indefinitely without some pay, yet the effects of the tsunami in the Nicobar islands will be felt for many years to come.
Tapas Ray gave the following recommendations for disaster relief mental health work:
1. Prepare national-level NGOs to respond.
2. Encourage the willingness of mental health professionals to assist NGOS.
3. Encourage international NGOs to assist national/local NGOs.
4. Obtain the cooperation of governments to facilitate NGO services.
5. Make adequate resources available.