Christchurch people will need practical help and support from family and friends to recover from the psychological shock of Tuesday's earthquake, not ''a raft of counsellors'', a Dunedin senior lecturer in psychological medicine says.
Dr Christopher Gale, of the Dunedin School of Medicine, said people would suffer from ''stress reactions'' from the event, including post-traumatic stress disorders involving flashbacks and other symptoms that could be crippling.
''But, the first thing is, most people are remarkably resilient,'' Dr Gale said.
''Most people are distressed and unhappy, but they cope.
''You get people who say, 'Send a raft of counsellors,' but that can make things worse rather than better.''
Dr Gale, who has experience in areas of mental health including general anxiety disorders, said Christchurch had some of the best people in the world working in the anxiety disorder area.
After the September earthquake, a system had been set up that involved more practical care, rather than ''tell me how you feel'' counselling.
He said some people thought counselling could do no harm, but that was not necessarily correct.
''We don't want to be sending a raft of counsellors.''
''Christchurch general practitioners and mental health workers have a system in place already; they can resurrect that.''
One-off emotive counselling was not likely to be helpful, Dr Gale said.
''Practical help seems to be more useful.''
Once people were helped with what was practically needed, and felt they had more control of their situation, they used their family and friends to ''just get through it''.
''We don't want to use diagnostic words.''
The people needed most were rescue workers, and with much of the city in a dangerous state, ''the rest of us should be out of there'', including people who were well meaning, but could do more harm than good.
