“Starting Monday, we will personally visit the sub-stations of the police and fire brigade; hospitals and ambulances; as well as schools, and offer special session for those who witnessed the tragedy from close quarters.” On Sunday itself, the Masina team met at least 27 patients, Pradhan said.

A Pune-base clinical psychologist, who has rushed to the city to help trauma victims, Dr Meenal Lonkar Kavishwar, is probably India’s only animal-assisted therapist. Kavishwar has a team of 40 volunteers and trained dogs in her clinic, Animal Angels Foundation. “We are in discussion with several hospitals, trying to set up a full-time, free psychiatric counseling centre. Our work should begin by next week,” Kavishwar said.

After the 7/11 train blasts in Mumbai, Kavishwar had set up a similar platform with the Bombay Psychiatric Society, and treated 40 patients with the help of animals.

“Animals provide immense comfort — their touch is soothing and helps in instant catharsis. This kind of treatment is very common in other countries,” Kavishwar pointed out. Her team includes clinical psychologist, physiotherapists and counselors as well as several volunteers from SNDT College. Her therapy dogs are specially trained.

Stressing on the importance of psychiatric counseling, Pradhan said, “This attack has been very severe since it went on for 60 hours, unlike past terror attacks which lasted for a couple of hours. People have seen gore in the places they frequent and that’s going to leave a deep scar. Most watched television non-stop for two days, and identified with the places that were attacks. It is critical to treat them now, otherwise the damage could become embedded.”

... contd.