As Peshawar’s young students return to school after last month’s brutal massacre on December 16, there has been talk in the media of much-needed psychological care, which the students and teachers at the Army Public School (APS) require. Along these lines, reports state that Western specialists are visiting APS to give the students treatment for several days. Indeed, it will be an enormous challenge to restore the well-being of the students and the faculty after such a traumatic event. Additionally, the Khyber-Pakhtunkwa (K-P) government has promised a child trauma centre to be set up by the psychiatry department of the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, acknowledging that the province is ill-equipped to deal with such a horrendous trauma as the December 16 attack.
Along with Peshawar and its surrounding areas, places like North Waziristan and Khyber Agency have seen a lot of trauma, too, over the years, given that the entire region has been dealing with varying forms of militancy and is burdened by both local and foreign threats of violence. Mental health care in K-P and in the tribal areas is notoriously substandard. Whether it is in the form of medicine-oriented psychiatry or talks-focused psychology, mental health care for drone attack victims and their families, for instance, remains relatively unheard of.
Even with the APS students and faculty members receiving treatment from foreign sources, K-P will still have the lowest number of psychiatrists per capita in Pakistan. In other words, mental health care in the province is the worst in the country, despite the prevalence of violence. Thousands of families endure trauma and all the rest of us can do is hope and pray for these families’ resilience.
At present, the treatment given to victims of violence in K-P is confined to treating physical ailments, with little attention given to the mental strain they suffer. In addition, the burden of the cost of medical care rests upon the victims and their families. Many of the drone victims in the neighbouring North Waziristan and Khyber agencies also come to Peshawar to be treated. The mental health problems that they face such as post-traumatic stress syndrome and anxiety disorders are hardly considered serious issues by the federal or provincial governments.
According to a medical report, one in five US soldiers returning from Afghanistan has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome. At the US air base in Bagram, 40 psychologists were on duty to provide soldiers with care in 2013. These numbers point towards the importance of counseling as a recovery therapy for successful, long-term treatment for trauma victims and their families.
After the APS massacre in Peshawar, the Pakistan government has quickly come to several new conclusions in its fresh resolve to wipe out militants from its soil. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs even briefly withheld or toned down its usual criticism of US drone attacks in North Waziristan shortly after the APS attack. What is actually needed is for the US government to take full responsibility for its drone attacks in Pakistan. The US must be held accountable for civilian injuries and deaths caused by its drone missile operations in North Waziristan and Khyber agencies. Just as the Pakistan government issues monetary compensation to its injured citizens after terrorist attacks, so too should the US. It should provide, at the very least, medical coverage, including access to mental health specialists, to innocent civilians and families who have been injured or affected by US drone attacks.
Unfortunately, at this point in time, I doubt that the overall quality of mental health care in K-P or in the tribal areas will improve any time soon.
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