REPORT FROM CHENGDU Tuesday JUNE 10 2008
First let me apologize both for the length and the disorganization of this report.
This is a kind of nuts and bolts report of what I have been doing up until the 10th. Later today I will write a report about my visit to a devastated village with 110 dead children and also about some plans to reduce the chaos.
Each day when I sat down to write, something happened and I could not continue with it. I get up at about 5 and fall into bed at midnight. New volunteers continue to email me, the result of all of you sending on my postings. Thank you.
This report is somewhat chaotic, mirroring the situation in Sichuan. I left NY on Monday 6/2. I am staying at a Sichuan University guesthouse, a large three star hotel on the edge of campus. Chengdu’s climate is like that of Savannah, hot humid—but there is less pollution than on any of my previous visits. The city is bustling, all the classy high-end shops, boutiques (places like Prada etc) are filled with smiling shoppers and lots of beautiful clothing, etc. The only sign of the earthquake is the small tent cities that have been used to house local Chengdu people whose houses fell down. About 1000 people died in Chengdu, but there is no feel of a place only 40 miles from devastation. There has only been one mild set of tremors since I came. Sitting in my 4th floor room with two Chinese volunteers from a local medical school. I asked, What do we do? They said, Keep on talking– and so we did.
The city is flooded with volunteers, NGOs, individuals. Most of the volunteers coming here have had no training at all. While different branches of the government and some private groups have been trying to create some organization, the huge scope of the disaster and the outpouring of aid from so many different sources makes that very difficult.
The first 3 or 4 days I worked finishing the translation and formatting of Gil Kliman’s Mercy Corps workbook for children (as well as doing my own work). The book is still not published and I despair of bureaucracy, the least of which in this matter is the Chinese government. I am glad that I am working alone responsible only to my Board and they have just been cheering me on. The publisher is very generous, printing and giving Mercy the book at cost. Mercy will either sell it to other organizations at cost or just give it to them.
The rest of my time has been arranging meetings at all the universities where I have old contacts and also new ones who have called me. Somehow I have become a well known person here. As you know, before I left I had arranged live on-line training for about 1000-1200 mental health professionals in Beijing and Shanghai and 4 other cities. Here I have been arranging for on-line training and for training by live trainers.
TRAINERS COMING TO CHENGDU
Jeff Taxman an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and trainer will be here tomorrow night. I have arranged three very large trainings for him so far and he will be training the Chengdu CAPA group, which has asked others to join the training. Ken Lee, a wonderful Hawaiian trainer, will arrive in Beijing next week to train for the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing University Department of Psychology and then, I hope come here to Chengdu to do some more trainings. Gang Sun is arriving with a colleague in three days and will participate in a large training.
We need more trainers here. Child people are particularly needed, but all are necessary.
GROUPS WE ARE WORKING WITH
1. Sichuan Normal University Department of Education (new contact-emailed me). On-line general disaster training from Disaster Psychiatry Outreach in New York City) for Education, Psychology departments professors and graduate students
2. Sichuan University Department of Counseling –3 day live training with other groups invited to participate. 100-200 people general and specific topics to be covered. Mercy corps and Jeff Taxman
3. South West China University for Finance and Economics (SWUFE) – Live Disaster training for counselors and others- Jeff Taxman. They have more than 15 students and faculty who have lost their whole families and 300-400 students and faculty who have lost their homes and more distant family members. I have lectured there and offered my help too. American Group Therapy Association will provide on line training in dealing with these groups of bereaved people.
4. Young Communist League of Sichuan Province. Via EAP, Asked me to set up a three day training program for them. There will be 6 live trainers including myself. More than 100 volunteers with training and psychology backgrounds applied to the YCL for training.
5. South West China University for Nationalities Live Disaster training for counselors, social workers, psychologists, faculty and graduate students They have more than 300 faculty members and students who have lost parents or other family members An art class of 300 students happened to be on a drawing expedition to a village when the earthquake struck. One of them was killed–the rest severely traumatized. American Group Therapy Association will provide on line training in dealing with these groups of bereaved people.
6. University of Electronic Science and Technology of China just emailed me requesting training
7. Sichuan CAPA group- Live training on many aspects of trauma and problems for the ensuing year. Jeff Taxman they have organized a three-day training by Jeff where more than 200 Buddhists will attend.
8. The chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of the Sichuan University medical School just called for an appointment to discuss training.
9. OXFAM is building 10 new schools in the disaster area. As these are built OXFAM will give the children’s workbook to the teachers whom Mercy corps will train. I will try to find a team of disaster workers to adopt those villages.
My visits and lectures to these universities there has made the following things clear.
1. Everyone needs Basic Trauma Training
2. Many of the volunteers are quite distressed as they go up to the earthquake zone, return and then go up again. All of them need support. Some need more than that.
A. I will offer the distressed volunteers who email me American volunteers who can give them support via Skype and/or email.
B. I am urging the universities and other groups to arrange times when the volunteers can talk about their experiences and concerns with each other and with more senior counselors and psychologists
C. I am arranging for those who request it for brief supervisions with our volunteers.
3. There is a great need for more training in very specific areas
Working with children
We are training people to use, via Mercy Corps, Gil Kliman’s Earthquake Workbook, but that is not sufficient. There are very few child psychiatrists and psychologists in China. Can one of you research a good online training program on Disaster work for Children. Preferably in Chinese.
Here is an example of the lack of knowledge. South West China University for Finance and Economics had a branch in one of the worst hit towns. 1000 partial and total orphans were air lifted to their campus in Chengdu. Just yesterday some of the kids were suddenly moved to another place—not a good idea I thought to keep moving these kids around. The custodial staff of the university is caring them for, though some of the student health counselors are working with them. They stay in makeshift dormitories with little to do. Luckily some are being restored to their partial families. Because of worries about their safety, the younger kids are not allowed out doors. There are said to be about 1000 total orphans in the disaster area. Other family members will adopt some, some will be offered for adoption by the families who have lost their only child. Many others in China have asked to adopt these children. But China has no real history of adoption and no trained professionals to work with the orphans and their adopting families. We need people to devise a training program for adoption: Both for mental health professionals and for adopting families and adopted children. Have it translated into Chinese—I can provide the names of translators—and put on DVDs for distribution.
4. As more weeks pass we will need people to train Chinese mental health professionals in PTSD work.
5. We need more people to come to China, train people, and develop an ongoing relationship with the group that you train. If you cannot come to China, this can be done on Skype and very low cost telephone.
The model I hope to follow is to get each organization or university to work providing all mental health services to as many towns and villages as they can. And to get one American disaster person or good organizer provide access to all the services and training each town needs
I would like your feedback.
Elise Snyder
If you would care to contribute some money to help defray the costs of the trainers who are paying their own way—and every little bit helps so ask your friends—
Please send donations to
CAPA
C/O Barbara Campbell
2621 Spring Grove Drive
Brighton MI 48114,
We are a tax exempt organization so all donations are tax deductible.