Tsunami Disaster - Psychosocial Care for Children [PDF] - Nimhans

Helping children to cope with lossü It is important to let the child know that it is normal to think about the traumatic event, feelupset and angry about it.ü Allow the child to express his/her feelings about the loss. Do not stop him/her from cryingor ventilating his/her feelings. Share your own pain with him/her so that he/she feels that itis okay to show their emotions.ü Do not try and avoid talking about the event in the belief that it will make a child sad.Children want to talk about what has happened, they have many queries related to theevent and they feel better if there is someone to talk to them.ü Children are different from adults. If a child is found actively playing, it does notnecessarily mean that the child all right from within. The child often does not know how toexpress/verbalize his/her pain or difficulties.ü You need to be honest and confess that you do not have answers to all their queries.In case you are finding it difficult to deal with your own situation, do not hesitate to admitthat.ü Allow the children to participate in family rituals if they want to.ü Make sure some caregiver is around to take care of the child during this period when thechild is trying to cope with his/her loss.ü Do not say things that are not true. For example if a person is dead, do not say that theperson has gone on a long trip or god has called him/her. This creates confusion in thechild and makes him/her anxious and the child anticipates about the return of the person orthinks why god did not take him/her.ü Help to remove misconceptions that the children may be having. For example they maybe thinking that they are bad and thus this happened to them or they may be thinking thatthey could have done something to prevent it from happening and hence they may haveguilt feelings.ü You may have to repeat the information over and over again many a time especially foryounger children.ü Allow the child to engage in activities to remember the loved person who has died or ismissing. He/she may like to write about that person or write letters to that person, draw apicture of them etc. This will help him/her to say a proper good bye to the person who hasgone and accept the reality.TOT INFORMATION MANUAL - 1 51