Psychologists from China's HK provide counseling to Nepal's quake victims

GURKHA, Nepal - A group of volunteer psychologists from China's Hong Kong on Thursday arrived in Gurkha, Neapl to provide counseling to quake victims.

It was the first counseling team from Hong Kong to arrive in Nepal after the quake.

Gurkha was the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude quake that struck the country on April 25. The powerful quake has claimed over 8,300 lives countrywide.

By asking five questions, the volunteer psychologists of Post Crisis Counseling Network, a Hong Kong-based charitable organization, are able to know the mental status of the victims to determine if they have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Prior to Nepal's 7.9-magnitude quake, the Post Crisis Counseling Network provided counseling to victims of China's Wenchuan earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan victims in the Philippines, said Timothy To, executive director of the organization.

After Nepal's quake, aid workers and relief supplies kept flowing in, but fewer psychologists arrived, said To, adding that currently there are only four psychologist teams in the Himalayan country.

"It is estimated that it may take years for Nepal to reconstruct, and with the current psychologist teams in the country, it may take over 30 years to provide counseling to the victims so that they can restore mental health and live a normal life again," To told Xinhua, calling for an input increase in post-quake counseling.

In the next two years, he said, the Post Crisis Counseling Network will send more teams to Nepal and train around 1,000 primary and secondary school teachers, so that the teachers can provide basic counseling to the victims and help them return to normal life.