A million volunteers to help grief-stricken people

>> The Mental Health Department has asked more than a million volunteers to reach out to villages nationwide to seek out those in need of mental health assistance following the passing of King Bhumibol.

The 1.04 million “village help volunteers” will visit areas in their locality to comfort people experiencing grief and encourage them to participate in activities during the mourning period. Those whose symptoms do not subside will be accompanied to hospital.

“These people have the chance to be close to those who are grieving, and we have asked them to look for depressive symptoms,” said department director-general Boonruang Triruangworawat.

The department has long had the assistance of village help volunteers, who are tasked to provide reports to their local tambon hospital on a monthly basis. Volunteers go through 33 hours of public health training and are responsible for overseeing 10 households each.

But there are few instances where the department has requested them to be dispatched on a mass scale all at once, such as during national disasters and disease outbreaks, said Dr Boonruang.

A day after the King’s passing, the department set up five booths for those seeking mental health assistance near the Grand Palace and Sanam Luang. There are now about 1,000 booths across the country.

The department’s 24-hour hotline has dealt with twice as many calls as normal in the 10 days since the King’s death, answering an average of 200 people a day. Some days have peaked at 300 calls, with more than half dealing with stress and anxiety and about 20% directly relating to grief for the King.

The third day following the King’s passing was the most difficult, and in the past week the number of grief reaction calls have seen a steady drop, with only 4% of total calls on Thursday.

“Most of these callers are lonely, have no one to turn to and refuse to leave their houses to participate in activities,” said Mathurada Suwannapho, director of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute.

Dr Mathurada said in one case a government official who called the hotline was referred to Srithanya Psychiatric Hospital and later admitted for depression. The official blamed himself for not being a good enough “servant of HM the King”.

Galaya Rajanakarindra Institute director Taweesin Visanuyothin said the recent drop in calls was in line with the normal grieving process, which usually lasts one to two weeks but could linger for six weeks.

The department is encouraging the public to participate in religious and state ceremonies as part of a “collective mourning” process that can ease grief.

“The whole world is confused by this phenomenon,” said Dr Taweesin. “It’s like a relative has passed away.”

But Pichai Ittasakul, an assistant professor at Mahidol University’s faculty of medicine at Ramathibodi Hospital, warned that the grieving process may last longer than usual.

“When you turn on the television, you see black. When you go on Facebook, you see black profile pictures. Get on the BTS and you will see black banners. The environment plays a large role in inducing grief among the public,” he said.