Survivors, aid workers concerned about looming mental health crisis in wake of Turkey-Syria earthquakes

Two months have passed since the earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, but the traumatic experience is still alive with Melisa Gökmen.

“The moment I entered the house, I was afraid that everything would happen again,” he said Now.

Gökmen, 23, has not set foot in his apartment in Malatya, Turkey, since February 6 – the day of the 7.8 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes. He has spent several weeks in the Turkish city of Tekirdağ, where he received psychological help from a psychiatrist.

He said it’s hard to sleep at night knowing his home survived the disaster while others around him collapsed.

“It’s going to be a long process for me to recover and get back to my old self,” he said. “It’s like seeing people suffer like this in a city I’ve lived in for 23 years, it’s my burden. I’m one of the lucky ones.”

“The area around our house has become a place full of rubble. Around school, market building. No one is there anymore. It looks like a place in a horror movie.”

More than 236,000 buildings collapsed or suffered significant damage in Turkey and Syria, and more than 50,000 people died.

Gökmen is not the only survivor struggling to adapt to life after the destruction. Aid groups on the ground are warning of a mental health crisis.

The UN said more than 5.4 million children in the earthquake zone is at risk of developing anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I met a group of children and they mentioned that they were afraid of the dark,” said Mehmet Ali Akil, Save the Children’s child protection coordinator in Antakya, Turkey.

“He can’t sleep. What he sees – like his body, his friends, his parents – he always thinks about it,” he said NowMatt Galloway.

The earthquake has also affected the way children interact with each other.

“There are children who become more aggressive with their siblings, with their friends, with their friends,” he said. “Some children become quieter and afraid of everything and develop attachments. They always want to be with their parents or older siblings.”

Akil and other aid workers try to give children normality and structure by creating a safe space for them. In that place, “we dance. we listen to music, play football. We try to provide educational activities,” he said.

Support is not limited to children. Akil said a chorus of parents and adults are also expressing concerns about their mental health and the need for psychological help.

However, finding a safe place is a challenge in itself. Antakya is one of the cities affected by the earthquake, and according to the mayor, more than 50 percent the city is in ruins or badly damaged – including Akil’s house.

“If it’s an emergency, if you want to go to the hospital, the hospital is like a tent. It’s also like some people living in tents on the street,” said Akil.

Aid groups have been working with local authorities to address the growing psychosocial needs. The Ministry of Family and Social Services of Turkey is deployed more than 3,700 social workers in earthquake zones.

But despite a coordinated response between government authorities and aid groups, Akil said the needs on the ground are outstripping available resources.

“We need the international community to step forward again, to increase the number of safe spaces and programs to ensure children from all backgrounds have a safe place and start to recover,” he said.

Official numbers provided by Save The Children show that $40 million US is needed to provide families with food, shelter, blankets, and other basic needs.

Syria Complex response

In Syria, mental health resources have been depleted by the 12-year civil war.

Now, aid workers are concerned about the toll the earthquake will take on communities already in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

“It is estimated that more than one million people in northwestern Syria need mental and psychosocial support – and only 24 psychologists are currently available,” said Nebras Haj Hamdan, Syria regional coordinator for the NGO GOAL Global.

Hamdan said people in northwestern Syria are not used to earthquakes. So in the first few minutes of the tremors, some Syrians reacted by going underground to the basement “as they are used to when they are bombed.”

“We have seen several bodies of victims in the basement of the building.”

Like Gökmen, some survivors are afraid to return home.

“One female colleague said, ‘When I went up to my apartment, I felt the ground move me,'” Hamdan said. “So he prefers to stay in the tent.”

“And another friend said her daughter still wakes up in the middle of the night scared and says, ‘There’s an earthquake, Dad. Let’s get out.’

Hamdan said the agency in Syria offers consulting services, both for its own staff and the general public. But targeted psychological first aid interventions are needed to address other mental health problems people experience, he said.

GOAL expects the coming weeks to be even more difficult for those affected. Aid groups face funding cuts from donors whose resources are also dwindling as they deal with other crises elsewhere, such as the drought in East Africa, floods in Pakistan, and the war in Ukraine.

“We will withdraw 76 villages and towns from food security support,” Galloway said. “This means stopping support for 19,000 beneficiaries who are among the most needy.”

He said GOAL is calling for more funding for Syria’s earthquake response efforts, as well as international pressure for renewal UN cross-country resolution which previously opened more border crossing points between Syria and Turkey to allow more humanitarian aid to enter the country.

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Producer Niza Lyapa Nondo.