Research News

Supervised by Dr. Begum, Roquia

Abstract

Acid throwing is one of the most serioiis concerns in Bangladesh. Acid violence has become an everyday phenomenon in our society. The consequences of acid attack are traumatic- physically, psychologically and socially It is found that the need of medical, legal and social support has been liiglily recognized but the need of psychological services for the acid bum victims has not been established properly. It is unknown to people, whether the acid bum victims sutfer from any mental health problems or not after acid attack. Although some people realize that they might suffer from psychological problems, the exact nature of the mental health problems of the acid bum victims are also unknown in Bangladeshi culture. The main objectives of the present study were to assess the mental health problems of the survivors of acid bum and to find out the severity of those problems and to apply appropriate psychological interventions to the survivors. The researcher collected 13 acid bum victim adolescent girls and women as the sample of the present research. They were from 12 different districts of Bangladesh and from different socio-economic background (lower, lower-middle and middle class). Their age range was between 14 to 35 years. All of the panicipants were living temporarily in an organization for treatment purpose, when the researcher worked with them. Among the participants 6 of them experienced the traumatic incident of acid attack within a month and the rest 7 participants experienced the traumatic incident of acid attack at least four months to 17 years ago. To collect data the researcher used in-depth interview method along with some psychometric tools like- Anxiety Scale (AS), Depression Scale (DS) and the 0-10 point Rating Scale. The scales were also used to monitor whether any change occurred due to psychological intervention. After finishing data collection the researcher analyzed the data through transcript preparation, coding and categorization with the help of tliree inter-raters. Inter rater reliability was 0.94.1 he present research found that acid bum survivors were suffering ijom various types of psychological problems both in their immediale and long-tenn phase. The common psychological problems were feeling anxious, depression, worry, fearflilness, irritability, worthlessness, helplessness, tearfulness, pessimistic outlook, distressing dreams, sleeping problem, low appetite, and headache etc. Though it was found that tlie symptoms of psychological problems were more or less same between the two phases, there was some difference in some symptoms between the two phases. In immediate phase some of the survivors were suffering from fear of death, flashback, intrusive recollection of the event, avoiding anxiety-provoking stimuli, which resembled the event etc. But in the long-tenn phase most of the survivors developed suicidal ideation, aggressive behavior, social withdrawal and even attempted suicide. Overall results showed that survivors of acid bum were suffering from mental health problems. Their mental health state was very poor, which affected their every part of life and made barrier to enjoy t|ualit\' of life. It w'as also found that the outcome of the provided psychological treatment was satisfactory in most of the survivors. So it can be said that appropriate psychological intervention can bring the positive change and progress to the acid bum survivors and of course the survivors of the acid bum needed psychological service both in immediate and long-term phases after acid attack. The service giver also needed training for gaining proper knowledge about the psychological impact of acid attack and about the application of appropriate treatment modality. It is recommended that there is a need to incorporate the psychological service with other existing service for restoring the victims^ well being as a whole. So that the survivors of the acid bum can regain their destroyed mental health and lead a better life. The present researcher proposed two models based on the qualitative data analysis of the case studies by which it will understand how psychological problems develop in acid bum victims and also what should be the appropriate process to regain their well-being. The models suggest that to restore acid victim’s well-being a multidisciplinary service approach is verv- much necessary.