the delicate psychological follow-up of earthquake survivors

Bursts of laughter break out. A swarm of children run in all directions in the narrow alleys of the Narlica district, in Antakya. “Everyone is the caterpillar! “says a young man, marked with a khaki vest. He advances with small steps, while the convoy organizes itself behind him. Despite the cold, the mud and the drizzle, the faces of the little ones shine. A semblance of normality in a daily life totally upset by the terrible earthquake of February 6.

Twelve young members of the NGO Humanity Crew take care of providing improvised psycho-social support in some of the makeshift camps where the tens of thousands of survivors who remained in the city have taken refuge. “During an unexpected violent event, the bodily reflex is either to freeze, or to fight, or to flee. When shock-related reactions continue long after, this is called “post-traumatic symptoms”, explains Emrah Gökalp, a recently graduated psychologist on the team. Here we find that these symptoms continue, some have become chronic. »

“I visualize buildings collapsing when I walk down the street”

On site, other organizations offer basic psycho-social support. Contrary to the traditional therapeutic framework, it is the professionals who move with the fragile people. Zeynep, a psychologist from the Maya association, improvises individual or group consultations, “often while walking”, as he likes to say.

Initially populated by 400,000 inhabitants, Antakya – the ancient Antioch – is now a ghost town. Only about 30% of the population remains, according to estimates. If part of the ruins have already been cleared, there are still thousands of tons of debris to clear. The sound of diggers resounds at every street corner, and the incessant ballet of thousands of construction trucks raises clouds of dust everywhere.

The survivors of the earthquake, the “depremzede” as they are called in Turkey, have not yet begun their phase of mourning, say the therapists. Partly because they still struggle to meet their basic needs. In consultation, patients testify to continuous stress, often marked by various symptoms: difficulty sleeping, body tension on the lookout for the slightest jolt, irritability, depression… Some people even say that they have erased from their memory all memory of the day of the earthquake.

“I moved to Ankara where there is no seismic risk, and yet I visualize the buildings collapsing when I walk in the street”, admits Melis, a young thirty-year-old passing through the region, who surprised by the earthquake in her apartment in Antakya. Stranded after the tremor, she had to throw her 3-year-old son from the first floor into the arms of her neighbour. “If I had listened to the advice of scientists, I would have curled up near the bed, and I would have died,” she says, showing the image of her bedroom devastated by a concrete block.

Patients deprived of their treatment

A few steps from the Orontes, the river that crosses Antakya, a container installed in a parking lot serves as a dispensary for the teams of the Turkish Psychiatric Association. Erhan Ceyhun is seated in a corner of the room, a consultation register on the table. “We basically receive two types of profiles. Those who already had psychiatric disorders and no longer have access to their treatment. And the people who were upset by the disaster of February 6, ”explains this former military psychiatrist. “Some patients came to tell me stories so hard that I couldn’t hold back my tears,” he confides, before evoking gruesome stories.

Anger is one of the emotions expressed, including against the government one month before the legislative and presidential elections on May 14. Since the start of the election campaign, towns in the disaster area have lost media attention, and commodity assistance has dropped dramatically. The inhabitants of Antakya resign themselves to having to wait months, even years, before returning to decent housing.

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Fourteen million Turks affected by the earthquake

The quake killed nearly 46,000 people (whose body was found) and left 105,000 injured in Turkey, according to doubtless incomplete reports. Nearly 6,000 people also lost their lives in Syria.

Damage : 214,000 buildings, sometimes more than a dozen stories high, in eleven of the country’s 81 provinces, have been destroyed or condemned.

Fourteen million people were affected by the earthquake, that is one sixth of the Turkish population. Among them, 3.3 million had to leave the disaster areas. Nearly 2 million still live in tents or in containers.

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