The Effect of Psychodrama on the survivors of Rana Plaza accident in Bangladesh Abu Yusuf Mahmuda,*, Mostofa Kamal Jatrab a Assistant Professor, Psychology Department, Chittagong Women’s College, Chittagong, Bangladesh. b Executive Director, United Theatre for Social Action(UTSA), 2111, Tahera Bhaban, Akbarshah Mazar lane, Pahartoli, Khulshi, Chittagong, Bangladesh. ABSTRACT The deadliest garment-factory accident in history as well as the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern human history happened in Bangladesh in April 2013, with the death toll of 1127. The numbers of injured people were approximately 2,500 and most of them were women. As time went, they became physically well but they got troubled mentally which kept them away from their job. In this situation, UTSA arranged a 12-day psychosocial first aid camp for the survivors and rescuers, where psychodrama was used to heal them mentally. In the present study, we examined the effect of psychodrama intervention given by the UTSA with the support of Diakonia, Bangladesh. It was found that maximum number of the participants reported that their mental condition improved after having the intervention. In addition, they requested spontaneously to arrange more psychodrama intervention program. 1. Introduction Psychotherapy is an essential part for the treatment of mentally ill people. There are some techniques which are used to make this procedure fruitful. Psychodrama is one of that tools which is very popular for group psychotherapy, which can help the distressed person ventilate his/her sufferings. Bangladesh, a developing country, has poor psychological support facility for the whole population. Geographically this country is situated in the disaster prone area; especially the southern part of the country is more vulnerable. In the last decade, Bangladesh faced some disasters bigger in size named SIDR, AILA etc. which caused a lot of damage in the southern part of it, with the result in a large number of mentally ill populations. In Bangladesh, only one organization named UTSA (United Theatre for Social Action) is working to provide the proper psychosocial care including counseling and psychotherapy since 1997, which uses psychodrama as a tool of giving psychotherapy for the treatment. Recently, on 24 April 2013, an eight-story commercial building, Rana plaza, collapsed in Savar, an outskirt town of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, with the death toll of 1127. The number of injured people, who were rescued from the building alive at that time, is approximately 2,500. The building contained clothing factories. It was the deadliest garment-factory accident in history as well as the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern human history [7,8] Garment factory is very established industry in Bangladesh. Maximum portion of the foreign exchange reserves comes from this industry sector. A working place is opened for women with the growing of garment sectors, which help them have empowerment and financial earnings. The larger portions of the garment workers are women, who raises their honor and respect undoubtedly. Furthermore, this garment industry gives women the opportunity to be financially independent and freedom. Statistically, 8% of the women of Bangladesh are now working in the garment industry that leads to have the empowerment of women. In this time, the Rana Plaza was broken down with having the largest man-made catastrophe in Bangladesh causing, in addition to the hundreds of deceased, thousands of garment workers physically wounded. As the time goes, the rescued people become getting well physically, but their mental condition is not help they return to their previous job sector. The victims and their family look lost and lonely as many of them have lost their nearest and dearest ones including husbands or wives or parents. This people, who are passing their life below poverty line, have no dream and capacity. They are now subjected to different types of psychological disorder, which keep them away from having normal life. To feed them mental restfulness, and confidence, which was very essential for their survival at that time, UTSA came with a motto to be by their side by arranging a “Psychosocial First Aid Camp for Savar Tragedy Victims & Survivors” for 12 days. The goal of the camp was to make them self-confident and to restore their psychological capability. It is reported that memory lapses, disorientation, headache, fear of closed indoor spaces are common symptom among the victims and rescuers. Rafiqul Islam, who got concentrated from the media for his awesome rescue activities, has suffered memory lapses and had a series of violent outbursts, and wound up losing his job. He still hears that troublesome garment workers are calling for his help from the broken concrete. Islam cannot recall how many people he tugged to escape from the rubble of Rana Plaza. He just can recollect how many he cut out with a hacksaw blade – eight. Most of the time now he wander alone, not sure where to go until the voices bring him back to the place where rescued so many people and lost himself. Omar Faruque Babu, a young mechanic, was celebrated in media reports for pulling more than 30 people from the wreckage. After ending the rescue operation, he was admitted to hospital, where he hanged himself for having relieved from mental agony. Majeda Begum, another garment factory employee, suffers from severe headache, disorientation, and a paralyzing fear of closed indoor spaces. A sewing machine operator named Razibul Rahman Kari was luckier than most because he manage to dig himself out with the help of a local man when he pinned by a heavy slab. After spending hours in the dark amid muffled screams, he has fresh scars on his wrist from cutting himself with a knife while locked in his bedroom. These are the few examples about how they suffered the mental pain caused by the catastrophe of Rana Plaza. According to the Center for the Rehabilitation for the Paralyzed, who has served beyond its capacity to give treatment for the Rana Plaza’s injured; patients with symptoms of acute psychological trauma receive a minimum of counseling before they are discharged due to a dearth of trained mental health professionals As mentioned earlier that a large portion of the total employed women are working in the garment sector. The garment sector has been flourished in Bangladesh with the help of women workers who very much motivated, active and dedicated towards their works at garments. In this time, the Rana Plaza accident was a major threat to women empowerment because the disaster causes a lot of harm to the garment workers. Now women workers might fear psychologically of facing same disaster again which keep them away from resuming their activity at garment sector. It is very important to be by their side to help them cope with the psychological pain. To face this challenge, it is very important to start psychological support program using various tools like psychodrama. In this situation, we spontaneously thought to carry out an evaluative study on the outcome of the psychodrama intervention arranged and used by UTSA in association with Diakonia, Bangladesh. In addition, we would like to measure the attitude towards psychodrama and whether they are eager to have further intervention program involving psychodrama. We, therefore, plan to examine the effect of psychodrama intervention on the survivors of Rana Plaza accident in Bangladesh. 2. Methodology 2.1 Participant As many as 45 survivors, relative, and rescuers were participated in the study. Among them, 21 were male and 24 were female participants. 2.2 Procedure Face to face interview was involved to collect information from the participants. The interview was taken by the presenter of the study and his two undergraduate students of psychology department in Dhaka College. The interview was scheduled for consecutive three days held in the premise of ADESH NGO, where the psychodrama intervention program was conducted, located at Savar in the district of Dhaka. The office of the ADESH is situated a distance of around half kilometer from the place where the accident took place. Those who received the psychodrama intervention have been contacted over cell phone and informed them about the upcoming interview with regards to the intervention they received. The information about their name, cell number and address were collected from the UTSA. The participants were asked to mention their before and after psychodrama therapy condition by answering the twelve prescribed questions. The duration of each interview was ranging from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. At the time of the interview, we shared some emotional events they faced. Furthermore they were very eager to talk about their present mental sufferings and financial stringency. We gave thanks to all the participants for coming to ADESH office in response to our announcement. It is seen from the presented data that information was obtained to compare the before and after psychodrama intervention. In the light of the data, it can be said that their overall performance is better than the previous condition. 3. Result The data collected in the study was organized in a tabular form which is shown below. Sl. No Question Before Psychodrama After Psychodrama Yes Some times No Yes Some times No 1 Do you sleep at night? 45 9 30 6 2 Do you have the capability to take bathing, eating, following prescription? 14 1 30 37 4 3 3 Do you feel interest in doing any work? 45 21 13 11 4 Do your heart rate rise and fall? 36 9 10 32 3 5 Do you feel well after rising from bed? 1 44 3 19 23 6 Do you look after your child? 1 2 33 10 6 13 7 Do you have tastes in food? 45 8 12 25 8 Do you maintain social contact? 1 2 42 15 17 2 9 Can you control your emotion? 7 38 16 26 3 10 Do you feel expectation regarding your profession, family or future? 7 38 37 7 1 11 Do you resume your professional work? 1 44 Yes No Yes No Some times All time Some times All time 12 Do you feel mentally ill? How much? 45 45 4. Discussion The sample size of the study was 45 (Male-21, Female-24). It is found from the table, after representing the data in tabular form, the overall performance of the participant, who received the psychodrama is well. After 33 days of the Rana Plaza incident UTSA arranged a psychosocial first aid camp from 26 to 03 May’13. At the time of intervention, the number of participants was 166. Following the purposive sampling method on the basis of their availability, we have collected the data from 45 persons among them. We have asked 12 question them. On the basis of these questions, we have measured the effectiveness of psychodrama in this population. Maximum number of the participants reported that their situation is improved after having the psychodrama intervention. When we asked the questions that “Do you sleep at night?” and “Do you feel interest in doing any work?” the answer they all replied, before psychodrama, was negative. After intervention, however, 9 and 21 persons respectively told that they improved significantly. On the other hand, 30 and 13 people answered in favor of “sometimes” which supports the effectiveness of the intervention program. Significant improvement is obtained when we asked “Do you feel expectation regarding your profession, family or future?”. To answer that question, maximum participants reported that after having the intervention they feel expectation. At last, when we wanted to know “Do you feel mentally ill? How much?” they noticed the mental illness before psychodrama exposure all time. But having the therapy, they do not feel mental sickness all the time but sometimes. The incident, which took place in Savar, was the largest man-made catastrophe in Bangladesh. Furthermore, after having verbal conversations with the participant, it can be concluded that they received the psychodrama spontaneously and they are very keen to have the psychodrama intervention again which, we assume on the result of the study, will reduce at the adjustable range. Gender discrimination is world-wide phenomenon. Women are exploited – it is not matter of discussion. Especially, women are more neglected and overlooked in the mental health problem in our country where a portion of the society still recognized it as stigma. Women are very frightened to join in any Garment Factory after the Rana Plaza disaster. It is important to make improvement of mental health of the Rana Plaza victims. Otherwise, a big portion of the women in the society will be jobless. Psychodrama intervention was a timely initiative for them. 5. Acknowledgement We are very much grateful to UTSA for giving assistance in the research. Furthermore, we extend our gratitude to ADESH NGO for supporting us by giving permission to use their office to collect the data. 6. Limitations There are some limitations of the study. Sample size was small. Due to financial stringency and shortage of time we do not collect data from all people who received psychodrama. In the future, again a psychodrama intervention can be arranged which will be helpful for them. 1. REFERENCES [1] Bangladesh building collapse death toll passes 500. BBC News. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013. [2] Bangladesh Building Collapse Death Toll Tops 500; Engineer Whistleblower Arrested. Huffington Post. 3 May 2013.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 17:38:52 +0000
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