Psychological help offered to bus crash survivors

The Department of Health is offering psychosocial support to the survivors and families of the victims killed in a fatal bus crash in Rizal last week, which left 15 dead and more than 30 others injured.

Health Undersecretary Gerardo Bayugo said psychologists and psychiatrists would be on hand to treat the survivors as well as the close kin of those who died in the road accident.

“Part of the protocol is to offer psychological counseling. They are suffering from trauma. If they need to, they can come back as long as the effects of the trauma are not fully erased,” he said.

“What happened might influence them in making decisions. They might be afraid to ride the bus after the accident. Then where will they ride?” he said.

Last Monday, 15 victims, mostly college students from the Bestlink College of the Philippines on a camping trip, died after the bus they were riding slammed into an electrical post in Tanay, Rizal.

Bayugo said the survivors and the families of those who died could seek psychosocial support for free from Amang Rodriguez Medical Center or other government hospital facilities.