Psychosocial support and medical treatment for earthquake survivors continue across the impacted areas and in cities, survivors migrated to nearly two months after the pair of powerful tremors, Minister of Family and Social Services Derya Yanık noted in her interview with Anadolu Agency (AA) Friday.
Pointing out that psychosocial support activities continue uninterrupted, Yanık highlighted the efforts undertaken by the ministry from the first day of the disaster, explaining the scope of the support provided not only in the earthquake zone but other provinces where many survivors have relocated since Feb. 6.
"When we say psychosocial support, (we mean) what needs to be done to rebuild our citizens' daily routine and daily life, which was disrupted by the disaster ... Starting with an analysis of their needs, firsthand search and rescue, the need for shelter in the next process, heating, food, clothing, hygiene items ... We organized all those processes quickly,'' Yanık said.
''This support is ongoing in both in the tent and container cities in the earthquake zone and in the places where our citizens were evacuated from the earthquake area. There are evacuation points that are very dense in Istanbul, Ankara, Kocaeli, Antalya and Mersin. We also continue our psychosocial support activities here," she underscored.
At the same time, the Family and Social Services Ministry is helping young quake survivors in the capital Ankara steer clear of depression.
Deniz Koçak, a psychologist working at the ministry, has been part of various activities to support the children in Ankara's Kazan and Kızılcahamam districts.
"We have built playgrounds and playgroups for preschool children staying in hotels. We also organized museum and cinema tours as well as shows that children can attend with their families with the contribution of municipalities and some foundations," Koçak told AA.
Kocak said that they also visited earthquake victims in their new houses. "We conduct individual interviews with children in need of psychological support. We started with psychological first aid and then continued with psychosocial support activities," she said.
Kocak said several examinations have been conducted to determine the physical needs of victims and to ensure coordination and delivery.
"Some 90% of the children in Kazan and Kızılcahamam continue their education. They were enrolled in schools in the region. Some children do not want to go to school as they do not want to be separated from their families. We provide them with psychological support and guide them to continue their education," she said.
"Children's adaptation to their new schools progressed faster than we thought. The number of children who have problems with absenteeism from school is low. This process has progressed in a much more positive direction as their peers and teachers have embraced them with love," Kocak added.
Nearly 10,000 earthquake victims, including 600 children, migrated to Ankara's Çubuk district following February quakes, Burhanettin Çelik, a social service worker at the ministry, told AA.
"Our social service center in Çubuk district provided psychological support to the children affected by the disaster to help them overcome their trauma," Çelik said.
Çelik underlined that families who settled in Çubuk had concerns about how to explain the earthquake to their children.
"In the first place, we gave the necessary information to the families about what needs to be done for the children to understand this process correctly. Secondly, the children needed to gradually return to their routine, such as getting up early in the morning and going to school," Çelik said.
During this process, the ministry personnel built play therapy rooms at the social service center, said Çelik, adding that children were also given picture analysis training by their teachers.
"Some 17 trained personnel visited the houses of more than 6,000 people one by one. During these visits, individuals in need of psychosocial therapy were identified. The majority of them were children," he said.
These children were also given therapy gradually after the acute phase was over, Çelik said. "We organized various entertaining activities and shows, such as puppet making, so that children can get away from their traumatic memories. We also distributed gifts to them," he said.
For children to continue their education, they also contacted their teachers in their new schools and made them aware of how to treat the young survivors. "We urged them to avoid engaging in behaviors that would remind the children of their disaster-related memories. The teachers then warned the students in their classes about this issue," he said.
The aim was to establish a social environment where children could continue their routine and ordinary lives without any change, according to Çelik.
Following the Feb. 6 earthquakes that razed hundreds of thousands of buildings, the infrastructure of the region, including many hospitals, was damaged.
Apart from the dozens of field hospitals established in the first week after the quake, newly opened hospitals, including the one built with 96 containers, continue to heal the wounds of the earthquake survivors in the quake-stricken areas.
Kocaeli Hospital, which has been providing treatment to 12,500 earthquake victims since its opening in Hatay, plays an active role in the rapid healing of the wounds.
The hospital, which was built by the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality with the support of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSIAD), continues to offer uninterrupted treatment.
Various polyclinic services are provided in an area of 2,000 square meters (6,561 square feet) in the hospital located in the Defne district of Hatay, which was transferred to the Ministry of Health after its establishment. The hospital, which serves with a 54-bed capacity, was opened on March 6.
Speaking to AA, Dr. Mehmet Karahan, the hospital's chief physician, noted that treatment services in orthopedics, children's diseases, gynecology and obstetrics were provided in the hospital. "The bed capacity is good in terms of providing on-site treatment of patients who need inpatient treatment without referral to another center. It is also good in terms of the physician. It enables the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of the disease on-site," he explained.
At the same time, other hospitals in the region, including the state Necip Fazıl City Hospital in Kahramanmaraş, continue to operate after the massive quake.
According to AA reports obtained from the assistant of the chief physician in the hospital, Dr. Mustafa Özgül, 625 babies have been born in the Necip Fazıl City Hospital Gynecology and Child Additional Service Building since Feb. 6.
The 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes on Feb. 6 struck 11 Turkish provinces – Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Hatay, Gaziantep, KahramanmaraŞ, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa, claiming more than 50,000 lives. Over 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the quakes, as well as many others in northern Syria.
