By Liu Zhihao, Special Correspondent of Our Paper
This is a woman who willingly gave up the opportunity to stay in Chengdu as a university teacher and instead spent three years doing psychological work in Beichuan.
Through some of her experiences and stories, perhaps people can reassess the term "post-disaster psychological assistance" three years after the earthquake, which is no longer unfamiliar.
When the former disaster area quickly reappears before people with a new and vibrant posture, the reconstruction of the mind takes a long time, maybe 10 years, 20 years, 30 years... or even someone's entire life to heal wounds and forget the past.
"Three years have passed, we have to start all over again..." she said.
The Help from "Relatives"
"When I arrived at the person's home, I found out that the one who made the call for help was actually the person himself, not any relative!"
On April 29th, in the office of the Beichuan County Psychological Health Service Center, Ren Xuemei helplessly smiled.
She appears to be an ordinary woman, medium build, wearing glasses, speaking clearly and logically.
Before coming to Beichuan, she should have stayed at Tianfu College of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics as a teacher. However, later she made an unexpected choice: to resign from her position as a university teacher and come to Beichuan to do psychological counseling. Later, she became the deputy director of the Beichuan County Psychological Health Service Center.
Ren Xuemei continued to tell the story. Just a few days ago, someone called the Beichuan County Psychological Health Service Center, saying that a relative was unwell, often insomnia, and had some dangerous behaviors, hoping the expert could go take a look and give some guidance.
Ren Xuemei quickly rented a car and rushed to the place mentioned by the caller.
However, when she finally reached the caller's house after much difficulty, Ren Xuemei was told: "That relative isn't at home now, they'll be back later!"
However, what surprised her was that the other family members were very polite to her, asking questions continuously, and enthusiastically introducing the "relative's" behavior, obviously having a good understanding of the situation.
Perhaps seeing her sincerity, the "family member" who had been talking to her finally told Ren Xuemei: In fact, the person who made the call for help was himself, not any relative.
Ren Xuemei then realized.
"There are many similar cases where people use the names of relatives or friends to call us for help."
And during the interview, the reporter asked a father who lost his child in the earthquake if his wife had sought help from a psychological expert for counseling. The father looked bewildered: "What kind of expert? Never heard of it!"
"This is the current situation in the disaster area. Many people feel embarrassed to tell others, one is the fear of losing face and being talked about; two is that they simply don't realize this is a disease that needs medical attention." Ren Xuemei sighed.
In fact, even in many big cities now, psychological counseling is still in its infancy, and there are still many misunderstandings and misinterpretations about it.
And Beichuan, before the earthquake, was just an ordinary county in the southwestern part of the country.
"To expect ordinary people in a county and its villages to have deep knowledge about psychological counseling is unrealistic," Ren Xuemei frankly admitted.
The situation in other places in the disaster area is also roughly the same.
"Three years have passed, I suddenly realized that our work has to start all over again. Before, we only thought about how many people needed our counseling, but now we find that many people don't even know what mental illness or psychological counseling is, the most basic popularization hasn't been done yet." Ren Xuemei repeatedly emphasized.
Deep-Level Harm
Stories like the "relative" seeking help keep happening at the Beichuan County Psychological Health Center.
An obvious example is that since its establishment in April 2009, very few people have come to the psychological center for help. Even if they know about this place, most contact is through phone calls.
Therefore, compiling materials and popularizing psychological knowledge has become one of Ren Xuemei's most important tasks at present.
"I am really worried. People obviously have psychological problems, but they neither call us nor communicate with others. It's hard to say what the consequences might be."
Ren Xuemei said that through surveys, she knows that there are still a considerable number of people in the disaster area suffering from varying degrees of anxiety and depression. Due to subjective and objective reasons, they have not received effective psychological treatment.
In the materials Ren Xuemei showed the reporter, "depression" is an important indicator, and under "depression", it is further divided into three categories: "mild", "moderate", and "severe".
"For people with moderate and severe depression, we will focus on them closely," Ren Xuemei told the reporter. Currently, people suffering from "depression" and "anxiety" in the disaster area still account for a significant proportion. Under favorable conditions, long-term follow-up treatment will be provided to them, "the shortest being several years, the longest being more than ten years, depending on specific situations."
During the interview, the reporter encountered such a situation.
A female teacher surnamed Chen from Anchang Town Primary School told the reporter that she had a female relative with whom she had a good relationship, whose only child died in the earthquake.
"She originally had a job, but after the earthquake, when her child passed away, she kept taking leave."
This teacher said that although this relative always wanted another child, she hadn't conceived for three years despite seeking medical advice everywhere.
"Every day she just stays at home, eats, sleeps, watches TV. She used to be very slim, but now she has gained a lot of weight."
Suppressing emotions, feeling bored, wanting to do nothing - this is currently the state of this relative.
Teacher Chen said that although she tries to counsel her relative every time she calls, there hasn't been much actual effect so far.
Such situations, Ren Xuemei doesn't know how many times she has encountered.
"The psychological issues brought by the earthquake are deep-seated. The cause of infertility may very well be due to excessive stress, requiring specialized psychological counseling, and it won't get better with just one or two sessions," Ren Xuemei said.
Director Zhang Jianxin of the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences stated that the post-disaster emergency psychological aid phase has already passed. Most people will naturally go through the post-disaster trauma phase and gradually self-recover.
However, the deep psychological issues brought by the earthquake to local residents may still emerge sequentially as reconstruction progresses.
"We need to pay attention to issues such as the adaptation problems of remarried couples, pregnancy issues for older women, psychological issues of cadres under heavy reconstruction pressure, communication problems after moving from temporary housing to permanent buildings, and of course, those who cannot get over the loss of loved ones for a long time."
The "Luxury" of a Car
Ren Xuemei still remembers vividly a sentence said to her by a Beichuan County leader when she took office in August 2009: "The mental health of 2.3 million people in Beichuan is entrusted to you..."
The reality, however, is that this department, established two years ago, now only has two professional psychological counselors - her and Teacher Xiao Zhang, and recently "Teacher Xiao Zhang went to give birth."
Ren Xuemei frankly admitted that the lack of professional talent is one of the obstacles restricting the continued development of this center.
Not only are people lacking, hardware equipment also needs strengthening.
"I really hope we could have a car." She repeatedly said during the interview.
The advantage of having a car is that "in the future, when we go out for consultations, it will be much more convenient, at least we won't have to climb mountains anymore."
Beichuan is a mountainous county, covering an area of 2869.18 square kilometers, with mountains accounting for 98.8% of the total area, and the urban area of the county only covers 0.7 square kilometers.
And most of the post-disaster psychological seekers come from the towns and villages below.
Last year, Ren Xuemei went to Chenjiaba Township to provide counseling for a seeker, "I left at 7 o'clock in the morning, renting a car."
However, shortly after passing Tongkou Town, the car broke down. "We were stuck in a place with no village ahead or behind until midnight before we managed to hitch a ride on a nearby village's vehicle going to the health clinic to return."
Of course, Ren Xuemei also knows that given the current situation, the disaster area's reconstruction requires a large amount of funds, and the issue of a car can only be a "luxury."
Official psychological institutions are already like this, and the situation of civilian volunteers and volunteer organizations is even less optimistic.
Volunteer Zhang Keke of the Beichuan Green Grassland Mind-Body Rehabilitation Service Center worriedly told the reporter that their organization came to Beichuan right after the earthquake and has been providing free traditional Chinese medicine mind-body rehabilitation services to the victims ever since, "Currently, there are still quite a number of people in Beichuan with psychological issues."
But what troubles him is that by the second half of this year, the funding support from Hong Kong Ming Ai will expire.
"If we can't find a suitable sponsor, we will have to disband."
Currently, Zhang Keke and his team are looking for suitable sponsors, and Ren Xuemei is continuing to "operate" within the "network" she has laid out.