STUFF HAPPENS

Coping with disaster (Laura Durnford and Rob van Dijk, Radio Netherlands, January 10th, 2005)

In the wake of the tsunami, with many thousands of people dead and many more left to cope with the grief and devastation, the psychological impacts of the tidal waves may be expected to have long-term effects. But how great are those likely to be?

The Netherlands has a number of experts who are experienced at dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder in a wide range of countries and situations.

One of them, Dr Peter van Loon of the Institute for Psychotrauma in the central town of Zaltbommel, is fairly optimistic about the chances for those affected to come to grips with what has happened to them:

"In the context of their own normal and social environment - for example when they've got family and friends around them - most people are sufficiently resilient to cope with even the most serious kinds of things that happened to them. That doesn't mean they'll forget their experiences - because they'll never forget - but they will be able to go on with their lives." [...]

Dr van Loon expects that there will be some people who will develop psychological trauma as a result of the whole experience. But he's optimistic that it should be a relatively small group.

"One way or another……, the vast majority of the people will eventually be able to get on with their lives once again. We mustn't under-estimate people's enormous ability to cope."

Unless of course you are a modern Westerner with cash to spare, in which case you need years of therapy to cope with the car accident you witnessed or your parents’ old age.