Lack of specialists to handle post-disaster situations

New Delhi:The National Disaster Management Authority said the country faces a shortage of man power to deal with psycho-social and mental health problems that follow disasters and there is a need to evolve a system to deal with it. For every 100 persons in the world, there are 1.2 psychiatrists and in India, the figure is 0.2. The average number of social workers globally is 0.4 and in India it is 0.03. "There is a shortage of man power in dealing with psycho social problems that arise after disasters. We need to evolve a system to deal with it," NDMA Vice Chairman Shashidhar Reddy said at the national workshop on psycho-social support and mental health services during disasters.