Seek company for good of your mental health, MHD says
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The Mental Health Department yesterday urged stranded flood victims to move to evacuation centres, as the prolonged inundation could hurt their mental health.
“You will feel lonely and alienated. All you can see is water. There is nothing you can do and you just have to wait for help,” the department’s deputy director general Dr Kiartibhumi Wongrajit said.
He said without electricity and tap water, the stranded flood victims would likely develop mentalhealth problems within two weeks.
“The more severe the flooding is and the longer it lasts, the more impacts on people’s mental health becomes,” Kiartibhumi said.
He added that the mental health of many floodhit people had already suffered, especially from stress.
He said it would be better for flood victims to stay at evacuation centres where they could talk to other floodhit people and do activities together.
“At the evacuation centres, they can even transform themselves from flood victims into helpers,” he pointed out.
According to him, most people who have chosen to stay at their flooded homes are elderly who are either worried about their properties or about that life would be more difficult elsewhere.
Kiartibhumi said the Public Health Ministry had already dispatched mobile teams to take care of the mental/physical health of floodhit people.
Moreover, three field hospitals were yesterday set up in Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani. One is located at the Car Care Centre at Bang Phlu Intersection in Nonthaburi. Two others are in Pathum Thani, one at the Provincial Hall and the other at the TU Dome.
To date, the number of field hospitals operated by the Public Health Ministry has risen to 20. Of them, 15 are located in Ayutthaya.
Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani are among the latest provinces to face serious impacts from raging floods.
Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri said people would have to plan something for possible flooding too.
“For example, they should stock food and water because transportation problems may affect officials’ delivery of help,” he pointed out.
