"Increasing the number of imprints of goodness, humanity, and love is the best therapy to help children overcome the consequences caused by natural disasters and floods."
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| Dr. Ho Lam Giang believes that providing psychological support for children after natural disasters is very important. (Photo: NVCC) |
That is the opinion of Dr. Ho Lam Giang, a cultural and educational research expert; author of the monograph Gender Discourse in the Media after Doi Moi with The World and Vietnam Newspaper on how to provide psychological support to children after the impacts of natural disasters and floods.
What is your perspective on the common psychological effects on children after disasters such as storms and floods?
As someone who has worked in the education field for many years, directly teaching at both high school and university levels, and also has a lot of experience in supporting students' mental health and psychology, I have some personal opinions as follows.
Facing natural disasters, not only children, but also adults, can hardly avoid psychological trauma and mental breakdown. The image that makes me feel anxious is a man, facing the great losses caused by Typhoon Yagi. He was absent-mindedly holding a relief bread still in a plastic bag and eating it. The losses and damages that victims of natural disasters have to bear are indeed too great, perhaps outsiders can only feel a part of it.
Children, who are one of the vulnerable groups that society prioritizes to protect. This comes from many reasons, including the important factor that children are very vulnerable because they do not have the ability to protect themselves from dangers or abuse from the surrounding environment. Therefore, children need both physical and mental care and protection from adults to develop safely and healthily.
The early years of life are a critical period of development that can have a profound impact on a child's future as an individual. Without adequate protection and care, a child's development can be severely affected, leading to long-term physical and psychological consequences.
Children's psychology is very vulnerable, so events that seem to have no great impact on adults can have a serious impact on children. Witnessing loss from natural disasters, children are likely to have a fearful, insecure, anxious, unsafe feeling, living in the obsession that natural disasters can strike at any time, somewhat helpless, hurt when they cannot protect the things they are attached to and love that have been swept away by the flood.
The destruction, desolation, and loss will also haunt children. Many children have fear even in their sleep, have changes in behavior, become aggressive or sometimes withdrawn, and some children panic and always cling to their parents out of fear.
Many psychological studies show that the first events that come to a person’s life will have a strong influence on their mental life later on. Therefore, we also need to take many actions to support children to recover psychologically after these traumatic experiences.
In the past few days, we have witnessed the loss and pain of storms and floods, but against the backdrop of natural disasters, the love of the Vietnamese people seems to shine. Support from human and material resources from everywhere has been poured into the flood-hit areas.
I think, it is not only a material encouragement, compensating for the losses that natural disasters have taken away from the people, but more than that, it is a spiritual nourishment, for humanity, for compassion, for compatriots, loving others as you love yourself. Only in times of trouble can we fully feel the love that our compatriots have for each other. And this spiritual potential will also create strength, for people in disaster areas, to resiliently rise up after storms and floods and love for people, to fully feel the beauty of human kindness.
On this basis, besides the painful reality of storms and floods, I think this is also an opportunity to educate children and help them feel the traditional values of solidarity and humanity of our nation. The love and care, not only from parents, family, relatives, and neighbors, but also from millions of people across Vietnam, will be an extremely effective and efficient spiritual "healing" medicine if children are aware of it.
You will feel the love in every handful of rice, every cake, every pen, every notebook. You can see the dedication and sacrifice of soldiers in flooded areas, bringing relief supplies, you will see the support movements in all schools, organizations, or from the retirement savings book of a retired teacher, all the money in the pocket of a long-distance driver... all contain so much love.
Feeling the positivity in life, the love, the solidarity, the kindness of the Vietnamese people will help them strengthen their national pride. From there, increase their inner strength, mental stability, and live with more pride.
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| Children are taken by canoe to leave the flooded area. (Source: VNE) |
What are the most effective ways to help children recover psychologically from these traumatic experiences? What role does the family play in providing psychological support to children?
I have some suggestions based on three principles: positive focus, environment, and overall impact.
Firstly, the positive focus here, in my opinion, is consistent with the saying that “wherever you focus, there it expands”. In the event of a natural disaster, it is an undeniable fact that loss and damage are inevitable. However, there is another aspect, through storms and floods, we feel more clearly humanity, the appreciation of family values, of a peaceful life, and can sympathize with places and people in difficult areas, natural disasters, epidemics, and unfortunate circumstances.
Second , whether or not a child's spirit can stabilize quickly depends largely on the parents' mental environment. If parents can quickly recover their spirit, have a positive attitude, look at and believe in the future, practice efforts to overcome difficulties, with will and determination to overcome the consequences of natural disasters, and stabilize their lives soon, that will be the best environment for children to stabilize and recover mentally soon.
| "Psychological imprints, especially terrifying ones, are difficult to completely erase. But looking at them from a different perspective, as well as increasing the imprints of goodness, humanity, and love, are the best therapies to help children overcome the consequences of natural disasters and floods." |
In addition to family, I think school and society are also important environments at this time, to help children have a resonance of love and psychological stability. Timely encouragement, both material and spiritual, will create a good environment for children to recover quickly and return to normal life after the storm and flood.
On the media front, information about the Government, organizations, agencies, authorities, and especially the people of the whole country supporting flood victims is also a great motivation to support people in disaster areas.
Third , it is necessary to combine the impact on the whole, which is the recovery of all three parts of the child's "body - mind - spirit". To have a healthy spirit, a healthy body is needed, from which children can think positively and perceive more aspects of life more thoroughly.
A healthy body comes from a proper diet, exercise, and rest. In addition, care, love, and mental security, parents' attention to meals and sleep, allowing children to be physically active, play with friends, and integrate with nature are some of the most basic and practical spiritual medicines.
Lack of parental attention, lack of sharing and confiding in their children, along with inadequate care, lack of sleep quality assurance, and lack of community reintegration activities are also among the reasons why children's psychological problems are slow to improve.
In many cases, children are partially traumatized by natural disasters, but the trauma caused by natural disasters has caused adults to collapse, or caused parents, because of their worries about food and clothing, to not be able to overcome their own problems, to not be able to care, or to become irritable, angry, or even ignore their children.
Or when children are too young, they have to listen, think, and worry about too much that adults accidentally express or let children take responsibility with them. All information and influence need to be controlled, because children's psychology is very sensitive and fragile, what parents say in particular and what adults convey to children, all need to have a certain purpose and educational meaning.
I think that psychological imprints, especially terrifying ones, can hardly be completely erased, but looking at them from a different perspective, as well as increasing the imprints of goodness, humanity, and love, are the best therapies to help children overcome the consequences of natural disasters and floods.
What do you think about the role of technology and media in providing psychological support to children after floods?
Through the information about the recent storms and floods in the media, I see that we have had certain successes in terms of news reporting, with wide coverage on many types of mass media. The information is updated, current, and at the same time has emotional and in-depth sharing about the situation of people in flood areas, these images have touched the hearts of thousands of people across the country. In particular, the mark of humanity through natural disasters and epidemics is shown in the humane actions of compatriots, the tradition of kindness of people across the country towards people in flood areas.
Witnessing the footage, images, and actions of the Vietnamese people in supporting their fellow countrymen affected by the storm and flood, I believe that in the hearts of everyone who participated and witnessed, emotions and pride arose.
Images of children facing difficulties in flood-hit areas, children who lost their families in the recent natural disasters, have received special attention and sympathy from millions of people. On the media front, besides the fierceness of the storms and floods, the loss of lives and circumstances, we are not only people in flood-hit areas, we feel the warmth of people's hearts, the emotion and joy that is kindled every time we hear that relief teams have entered the flood-hit areas to provide relief, and that thousands of billions have been transferred to the Vietnam Fatherland Front to support our compatriots.
Police and military soldiers immersed themselves in floodwaters to support the people; people on both sides of the road cooked rice to serve the relief convoy. The media really did its job well, reporting promptly, effectively and with humanity.
Thanks TS!
Source: https://baoquocte.vn/ts-ho-lam-giang-chua-lanh-tinh-than-cho-tre-sau-thien-tai-287567.html
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