‘No mechanism to help witnesses and kin of victims to cope better’

MUMBAI: While the city’s health machinery helped the injured in the aftermath of the foot overbridge collapse at Chhatrapati Shivaji t erminus ( CST) on Thursday, a lot more needs to be done to provide psychological assistance to eyewitnesses, victims or their kin.

Experts said there is a need for stress management mechanism.

Wasim Shaikh, 42, who works at Crawford Market and helped the police and disaster management cell in rescue operations, said that after the tragedy, he avoided taking a bridge while coming to work from his Byculla residence on Friday.

“I didn’t feel scared when I saw the collapsed bridge. My first thought was to help as many people possible. The next morning, I felt anxious and didn’t want to get onto a bridge or subway,” said Shaikh.

Officials from the civic body said the health machinery lacks protocols.

Dr Padmaja Keskar, execu- tive health officer, BMC, said doctors who t reat patients injured in disasters are usually asked to identify psychological trauma and refer them to the psychiatry department. “But we don’t have a fixed protocol in s uch c a s e s . Doct o r s r e f e r pati ents on a c ase- by- c ase basis,” she said.

Experts said people exposed to such tragedies, where there is a loss of multiple lives or grievous i njuries, eit her go i nto hyper emotive phase or don’t express their emotions at all.

Dr Sagar Mundada, MD, psychiatry, said there are patients who either show no emotion or are overtly emotional.

“If patients don’t get help to process t heir f e e l i ngs and thoughts, the chances of them developing anxiety and depression are high,” Dr Mundada said.

Loss of appetite, sleeplessness, flashbacks are common in patients who have faced any form of trauma and need to be referred to psychiatrists, he said. HTC