A Cambridge academic and a locally-based children’s charity have been drawn into the international relief effort for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Clinical psychiatrist Dr Lynne Jones, a senior mental health advisor for the International Medical Corps (IMC), flew to Haiti on Monday to co-ordinate psychological counselling for the earthquake’s survivors.  Dr Jones is an honorary research associate at the University of Cambridge, and has previously undertaken psychological relief work in Pakistan and Kosovo.

Before flying to the quake-ravaged country, Dr Jones warned of the grave consequences for the nation’s future wellbeing if the physical destruction caused by the disaster was not dealt with in a psychologically sensitive way.

Dr Jones said, “Burning large numbers of bodies in mass graves is not good for long-term mental health. Mental health considerations need to be integrated into the other relief work that takes place. It’s not just about counselling.”

The IMC is a California-based non-political charity with volunteer doctors and nurses posted globally, which focuses on healthcare training, relief and development programs. It was one of the first international relief organisations to send medics to Haiti, and has set up a clinic in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.  The clinic has been treating hundreds of people, with priority given to those with physical injuries, despite suffering logistical problems in getting workers into Haiti.

IMC teams are expected to offer ‘psychological first aid’ to Haitians, which includes empathetic listening, paying attention to a person’s particular needs and providing information.  Dr Jones commented that in the long term, the presence of mental healthcare workers in Haiti may improve community services across the board, thus helping the reconstruction effort when it comes.

Priority for mental healthcare services in Haiti is expected to be given to those with pre-existing mental health problems, whose medical treatment has been interrupted by the collapse in physical and social infrastructure. Those with disorders brought on by acute stress will also be given priority in treatment.

Elsewhere, Cambridge based children’s charity SOS Children’s Villages has joined the international effort to rehome children orphaned by the earthquake. The organisation, which supports some 70,000 orphaned children in 124 countries, is working to reunite children with surviving family members, and to support orphaned children “through to independence”.

The charity’s chief executive in Cambridge, Andrew Cates, commented that SOS-CV was particularly well placed to respond to the aftermath of the earthquake, having a base in Haiti already. “Our children’s village [in Santo, 16km from Port-au-Prince] is largely intact,” he said.

“We have food, water and electricity, and the village playing field is now having an emergency hospital built on it because we are one of the very few places with a working infrastructure there.

“The village itself is totally serviceable and is now being used as a hub, to help in particular the children and the orphaned children around Port-au-Prince. The role that we’re given is to look after the unaccompanied children. We trace the families, we do trauma therapy and at the end of 18 months of trying to find a family - and the best solution for every child - we typically end up with 500 or 600 children who live in family-based care in our children’s villages.

“We are orphan specialists. In Haiti we have trauma specialists who know how to deal with children who are traumatised.”

The earthquake, which struck ten miles south of Port-au-Prince on January 12th, measured 7.0 on the Richter scale. Estimates predict at least 110,000 dead, and one million more displaced.