PESHAWAR, November 24: A Competence and Trauma Centre for Journalists has been established at the University of Peshawar to provide psychological treatment to media personnel working in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and Department of Psychology have set up the trauma centre, with the collaboration of Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW).
In the inaugural session at Abdul Qayyum Hall on campus, Journalism Department’s chairman Dr Altafullah Khan said regular classes and workshops would soon be started to treat journalists for depression and mental stress.
Talking to TNN, a journalist named Mr Abdur Rauf Yousafzai termed the trauma centre need of the hour.
“Those who cover the news are directly affected. Whenever a bomb explosion takes place, people rush away from that place whilst journalists try to reach there as soon as possible. Such kind of tragic incidents have increased in our areas for past several years, which have mentally disturbed the journalists. I think that establishment of this centre is a good initiative because the training and therapies are very important so that they return back to their field areas after getting normal,” he added.
Dr Irum Irshad, the Psychology Department chairperson, said that along with the local residents, journalists have been badly affected due to poor law and order situation in the province and adjacent tribal belt.
The newly established trauma centre would provide training and carry out therapies for free, she added.
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