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| The atmosphere of the UMM Psychology Service Post. (Photo: Syifa Public Relations) |
The Kanjuruhan stadium tragedy that occurred last month still leaves scars. Not only physical wounds but also mental wounds. This moved the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) to provide psychosocial services in trauma healing for victims and their families, even journalists at the location. Moreover, they have done good coverage before, during, and after the tragedy. This service is located in the Mosque Hall on the first floor of UMM and is open from nine to three in the afternoon.
One of the volunteers, Ahmad Sulaiman, S.Psi., M.Ed, explained that the UMM psychosocial service post provided two types of services to victims, including journalists. The first service is Psychological First Aid (PFA), a series of mental strengthening actions. This early stage is also helpful for seeing the client's current condition. After that, if the victim experiences a severe condition, counseling will be carried out with a psychologist. In addition, the volunteers also went to the victims' homes to provide psychological assistance. In total, there were 40 volunteers from students and ten psychologists from UMM alums.
"Since that opened on Monday last week, hundreds of people went to UMM, and 30 victims that we have visited at their homes. Many still remember painful experiences at the scene, such as falling victim, feeling suffocated, and being beaten by the police. In addition, many victims are traumatized, so they are afraid to leave the house. Usually, they are traumatized when they see the blue color, which is the symbol of Arema and the ambulance. It is not much different for the journalists who came today," said the lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology.
Furthermore, Mada, as he is familiarly known, explained that these conditions interfered with the daily activities of the victims. After reviewing the victim's disease, the volunteers will provide counseling and treatment according to the severity of the victim. They can even do consultations more than three times to ensure the survivors can return to normal activities.
"Initially, we planned to carry out this service program until the end of the month. However, considering the condition of some victims, maybe that will extend this service with a more stringent selection of volunteers. We hope this psychosocial service post can ease the mental wounds experienced by the victims and their bereaved families," said Mada.
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On the other hand, one of the victims, a journalist from RRI Malang Feri Ardiansyah, said that he was at the scene when the riots occurred. At first, he and his friends were waiting for the press conference after the game. But after a few minutes, the stadium became chaotic, and the tragedy occurred. After the incident, Feri, his nickname, said that he was physically and mentally exhausted due to lack of sleep.
"I learned about this service from other media friends and was advised to come here. One of the changes I experienced after the tragedy of Kanjuruhan was difficulty sleeping. Usually, I can sleep at nine or ten at night, but after the tragedy, I could only sleep at two in the morning. Even though I have to get up at half past five in the morning every day," he said.
Ferdi appreciated and was grateful for UMM's efforts in providing psychological consulting services. Through these services, he was given the confidence to forget the tragic incident. So they can return to living a normal life. (apg/shi/wil)
