After two days of silence, a 19-year-old man from east China's Zhejiang Province is now able to speak again.

"Thank you doctor," he said.

The boy lost the power of speech on August 10, when super typhoon Saomai churned ashore in Cangnan County and smashed his house. After digging him out of the debris - where he was buried for five hours - rescuers hurried him to hospital only to find the boy too frightened and nervous to speak.

Dr Fu Sufen decided to take a psychological approach. She gave him an injection of glucose. "This is the medicine that cures your throat," she said. "Now do you feel warm down there?"

Hours later, Lin began to emerge from his numbness and responded with nodding. Then Fu asked him to repeat sounds after her.

"Disasters not only hurt people physically," said Chen Yingmei, a psychologist with No. 2 Hospital in Sanming, Fujian Province. "People also suffer from mental anguish which, if not cured in time, can lead to suicide."

To date, the 32-member psychological intervention team has treated over 300 people in Zhejiang affected by Saomai. Most of the team members are doctors from psychological hospitals and 10 are volunteers.

In Fuding, the worst-hit area in southeast China's Fujian where over 200 were killed in the calamity and where sunken ships are still being salvaged, five psychological experts, including doctor Chen, have visited 36 families to relieve their mental distress.

This is the first time psychological experts have been assembled to help disaster-affected people in the two provinces.

Some patients - like Lin - are victims dragged back from near death, while others lost relatives in the disaster and felt guilty about being unable to help. Local officials like the head of Mazhan Town and soldiers and medical workers are also on the patient list.

Traumatized by Saomai, they suffer from nervousness, nightmares, fluctuating moods, amnesia, or drug and alcohol abuse. They need doctors to help them face reality and vent their sorrow, noted Zhao Guoqiu with the Zhejiang psychological counseling team. At first, the psychological intervention was not accepted by local people. "They thought that psychological treatment is reserved for asylums," said Dr Zhao.

(Shanghai Daily September 7, 2006)