Many still feel effects of Itaewon trauma, health professionals urge people to seek help

Many people are still feeling the effects of trauma following the Itaewon tragedy that claimed the lives of so many on Oct. 29.

A citizen pays respects to the victims of the Itaewon tragedy at a makeshift memorial near Exit 1 of Itaewon Station on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Many people are still feeling the effects of trauma following the Itaewon tragedy that claimed the lives of so many on Oct. 29.

One man in his 20s who was at the site of the incident and helped rescue people by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) had a panic attack recently after riding on a jam-packed bus.

Throughout the day, vivid scenes of the incident would keep flashing through his mind, making it difficult to even sleep.

Six days after the incident occurred, he acknowledged his unstable mental state and sought help from a counselor.

“I thought one or two counseling sessions would not be enough, so I asked the National Center for Disaster and Trauma to continue looking after him,” said Paik Jong-woo, a psychiatry professor at Kyung Hee University Medical Center.

“The tragedy took place in the middle of a city, and the wide distribution of footage caused secondhand trauma to so many people.

"There will also be people who are hiding that they there were at the site that day and who are afraid to express their feelings because of people’s stereotypes. But as we do not have a list of their names like we do for the victims, we need to repeatedly tell people to get support and treatment if they are suffering from such symptoms,” Prof. Paik said.

The stress that comes from experiencing a tragedy could lead to mental illness. This includes secondary stress that the person experiences.

According to a study conducted by the National Center for Medical Health and released by the Korean Psychological Association in 2020, around 11 percent of the 1,390 people studied involved in a tragedy developed a mental illness that they did not have three months prior to the occurrence of the incident.

Anxiety disorder was the most frequent illness displayed, followed by depression.

For those who suffered from human-caused disasters such as a fire, the possibility of them suffering from a mental illness was more than six times higher than those affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes or flooding.

“When it is serious, the risk of it affecting people’s mental health could be the same as when people are physically injured or have been economically damaged,” said Sim Min-young from the National Center for Disaster and Trauma who participated in the research.

“The recovery period for these trauma symptoms may take one to two years, and if they last longer, it would become chronic,” Sim said, emphasizing how important it is to take care of these symptoms early on.

Voices calling for more public infrastructure related to the treatment of these trauma symptoms have also been raised.

“Japan operates a disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) along with a disaster psychiatric assistance team (DPAT),” Paik from Kyung Hee University Medical Center said.

“We also need this kind of system.”

There are only five trauma centers in the country, including the National Center for Disaster and Trauma.

Many local governments operate mental health welfare centers, but this is not enough to take care of people with trauma from disaster-like tragedies. According to a report released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in August last year, only 56 percent of these centers had manuals on mental health care for disaster-like situations.

The Korean government has set up a phone counseling service available through the National Center for Disaster and Trauma at 1577-0199 in Korean only and at 02) 2204-0001 in English and Korean, which anyone can call to receive counseling.

People can also visit the National Center for Medical Health at www.nct.go.kr to check their mental status by themselves.

BY EO HWAN-HEE [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]