CRI听力:Psychological counseling underway for victims in Phuket boat accident

Psychological counseling is now being offered to the survivors and relatives of the dead connected to last week's tourist boat capsizing off the west coast of Thailand involving Chinese tourists.

Fu Yu, a psychological counselor from China's Blue Sky Rescue Team, which is conducting rescue operations at the scene says their counseling work mainly focuses on three groups of people, including the survivors, the relatives of the dead and the volunteers assisting in the rescue operation.

In terms of the survivors, Fu Yu says they are working with them to help mitigate the potential mental trauma of the incident.

"After the survivors go back home, the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder may appear on some of them. Therefore, before the survivors go home, we will tell their relatives in advance what those symptoms look like, and how to cope with them, and ask their relatives to keep a close watch on the survivors' conditions," says Fu.

As for the relatives of those who died, Fu Yu says they focus on how to deal with their emotional reactions in the initial stages of their grief.

"Our volunteer and their counterparts in Thailand will work together to console the late victims' relatives. Local authorities are set to hold a special religious ritual for dead victims by the seaside on Wednesday, with their relatives taking part. We will be ready to take emergency measures to deal with the negative reactions that may appear in some of the relatives who are too emotional to control themselves during the ritual," says Fu.

Fu Yu also notes that some of the volunteers also need psychological counseling, suggesting their psychological condition may be affected by the busy work and huge pressures involved.

"Our psychological counselors will accompany the volunteers when they are taking care of the survivors and the relatives of the late victims. We will also provide psychological counseling services for those volunteers. We are also planning to hold some training sessions related to the issue for them as a way of support," says Fu.

Two tourist ships, the "Phoenix" and "Serenita," capsized and sank off the southern coast of the Thai tourist island of Phuket last Thursday.

So far 45 are confirmed dead, while two others are still listed as missing.

Most of the survivors have been discharged from hospital.