Date:14/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/14/stories/2008111453290300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Nagapattinam

Tsunami orphans to get tele-counselling

Special Correspondent

To be extended to children in all orphanages

TAKING CARE: The inauguration of psychiatric tele-counselling service for tsunami orphans in Nagapattinam. (Inset) Tsunami orphans at the Annai Sathya orphanage participating in the session.

NAGAPATTINAM: Tsunami orphans will receive psychiatric tele-counselling. The service is being started in the Annai Sathya government orphanage and will soon be extended to children in all orphanages and government hostels, Psychological Community Health Organisation (PSYCHO) Trust director J. Christraj said here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the inauguration of the service at the office of DRO (Relief and Rehabilitation) K.S. Kandasamy, Mr. Christraj said that psychiatrists would provide counselling and prescription services for the children twice a week through the tele-medicine link.

Nearly 6,500 children live in such institutions with 3,110 children in orphanages in the district, he said. Of the 44 orphanages in the district, 22 were built for the tsunami orphans , Mr. Christraj said.

These children were especially vulnerable because they may not have fully recovered from the shock of the tsunami. The Trust had identified 1,247 children with mental illness and had treated 1,024 children.

“But there are so many children and it is impossible to treat all of them. Director of (Chennai-based voluntary organisation) Psychiatric Services and Research Foundation Dr. N. Shalini visits the orphanage twice a month but she can’t handle more than 30 cases a day,” Mr. Christraj said. To ease the burden on the understaffed organisation, the Trust had set up a nodal centre for tele-medicine at their office in Nagapattinam. With five links possible at the same time, this would ensure that any psychiatrist, and especially super-speciality doctors anywhere in the world, could counsel the children regularly and take care of emergencies, he said. In time, the treatment facility would be extended to all the children , and the administration would give all support, Mr. Kandasamy said.