Three months after earthquakes hit eastern Turkey most people are still living in tents or metal containers, making it difficult for them to recover from their traumatic experiences. MSF is providing mental health support to help survivors cope.
Invisible wounds
MSF are providing mental health care to people affected by the recent earthquakes in eastern Turkey.
© Knut Maehlumshagen
Parts of life are returning to normal, with children back at school and shops and markets open again, in Van, Eastern Turkey.
However, some people are still struggling to come to terms with what has happened to them, as well as the stigma of mental health problems, as some of our patients have testified:
A member of the rescue team: “There was one building collapsing. When I arrived there was one man asking me to go in and save his wife and baby child. We did everything we could, but the building collapsed and they died.
"The only thing I could do was cry with this man. So we cried together. I still dream about it.”
Twenty-one-year-old boy: “I cannot talk with you outside, because people gossip, but I know you are here every week and I only had courage to came to see you today, because I think I´m going crazy.
"I cannot sleep in the container, because I remember my previous room, where I had my computer and could talk with my friends.
"I cannot see my girlfriend, because she went to another city after losing everything in the quake; I cannot read or meet my friends, because I cannot enjoy the things I used to enjoy before the quake. Am I going crazy? Can you help me?”
Mental health support
“People have the normal stress reaction: nightmares, loss of appetite, sleep problems or even insomnia," says Maria Palha, an MSF psychologist working in Van.
"They feel helpless, they are afraid to die, some cannot even recognise their village.
“First they were reluctant to come to our mental health group sessions, but little by little we won their confidence and now they speak openly about their frustrations, and come back each week,” she adds.
So far, 3,000 women and 1,800 men have benefited from group sessions and 40 people with more severe symptoms have received individual mental health support.
“In one of the villages we had a five-year-old boy who came with his mother and told us ‘I am scared and my mum is always angry. You need to help us.’
"This shows how people understand now that psychological support can help them, and this is already an achievement,” says Palha.
MSF is also approaching the villages’ schoolteachers to offer support, and is offering psychological support to 91 families of refugees and asylum seekers who have been affected by the quake and live in makeshift settlements in the city of Van.
Background information
In December last year MSF and Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (hCa), in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Policy and the Centre for Crisis Coordination in Van, started a two-month psychological support programme in 31 villages outside Van city centre.
In addition to providing mental health support, MSF, in collaboration with Turkish organisations Hayata Destek and hCa and local authorities, has distributed 2,000 winterised tents and 2,000 cooking kits for 12,000 people in 37 villages in Van province.