Humanitarian medical aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has stopped its mental health services in Kashmir due to increasing violence and a round-the-clock curfew. Kashmir has been rocked by public protests for the last three months.
MSF teams have had no access to the hospitals to continue conducting the counselling sessions in view of the strict curfew is in place in several parts of Jammu and Kashmir state for close to a week. No person without a valid curfew pass is allowed outside their house. Sometimes curfew passes are not honoured. Road blocks are numerous, shops closed, and the streets empty.
“MSF is extremely concerned about how this deteriorating situation will significantly affect people and their mental health,” Martin Sloot, Head of Mission for MSF in India, said in a statement. “Our national staff has been confined to their homes. We have relocated our international staff to a safer place.”
MSF has been working in Jammu and Kashmir since 2001 offering psychosocial counselling to a population traumatised by over two decades of violence. In 2009, MSF’s mental health programme treated more than 5,800 people. MSF also provides psychosocial education to the people of Kashmir through various means, including the MSF radio show about mental health called “Alaw Baya Alaw” (“Call Brother Call”). MSF teams have provided psychological support to patients who are Indian security personnel also injured in the recent violence.
The latest surge in violence began in June when regular street battles between Kashmiri youths and the Indian security forces intensified. Hundreds of people were injured and over 100 civilians killed. The Kashmir Valley has seen 85 days of curfew since the end of June, so leading a normal life has become impossible.
So far, 102 protesters and bystanders, mainly young men, have been killed since June according to an AFP tally, mostly by security forces firing at demonstrators who were pelting them with stones, chunks of wood, and pieces of concrete.
The recent violence has added to the heavy toll already on people traumatised by two decades of conflict and civil unrest. Patients with gunshot wounds and tear-gas shell injuries are treated in the hospitals in the main city of Srinagar, but while their physical injuries are being treated, many also have psychological needs.
With the cooperation of hospital staff, since February 2010, MSF counsellors have been visiting patients in the hospitals and offering on-the-spot psychological assistance to victims of violence and their families. “We are calling it mental health first aid,” said MSF’s Project Coordinator Sasha Matthews.
“Every public space – schools, stadiums, cinemas, markets, everything – has been taken over by the security forces,” said Matthews. “There’s razor-blade barb wire across the valley. Every day you see hundreds of military convoys and security forces patrolling the streets. For ordinary people, there is this constant visual reminder of their presence.”
Explaining the rationale behind mental health first aid, Matthews said, “It is a method of enhancing the patient’s own natural coping strategies after they’ve suffered a traumatic event. We help them to use their own self-healing process successfully.
“The counsellors provide emotional support by listening to the patient’s stories, help them to come to terms with what has happened, and offer practical advice on how to deal with possible psychological consequences. Overall, the major goal is to give emotional support to all victims of violence and their families with a caring and practical approach and a neutral and non-judgmental attitude."
