Beslan residents one year later

One year after the tragedy, Beslan residents need help no less than before, thinks Galina Soldatov, Psychology Professor at the Moscow State University. "The situation is complex and very controversial, people need psychological assistance and support from all sides no less than they did earlier," she told journalists on Wednesday.

Yet Ms Soldatov mentioned it was possible to say that there were positive patterns after one year because "psychological, social, and other support can but cure." She said that psychologists working in Beslan had conducted a diagnosis of victims and other town residents. "If we now take an average Beslan resident, his or her psychological parameters are close to normal," she added.

According to RIA Novosti, however, psychologists note differentiation of town dwellers. Thus, those who left the school without serious injuries and whose relatives did not die can better cope with posttraumatic stress which Beslan residents had experienced.

Ms Soldatov said that two centres for psychological assistance had recently been organised in Beslan. They are situated in the Children's Art House and in the Sports Palace. These centres provide individual, group, and family aid. Besides, they help those who do not come to the psychologists and those who do not often leave home for various reasons.

She also thinks that Beslan residents can have the current psychological stress in various forms for quite a long time, and the situation has to be monitored for another two or three years. "Of course, this trace will last for life, but the question is when and how this stress will be psychologically treated," thinks Ms Soldatov.

Andrei Pechnikov, Director of the Beslan Programme of a UK-based charitable foundation, says that there are currently 20-25 major organisations in the town which implement their own projects of psychological rehabilitation of town dwellers. Thus, the foundation is working on 19 projects with $1.5 million allocated for them.

Mr Pechnikov says their work is currently more difficult to carry out because much assistance was given in the first days after the terrorist act. It was mostly directed to children, whereas their families, teachers, and other victims were forgotten. "The entire town sustained a trauma and now psychologists say aid should have been provided to all 35,000 residents," thinks Mr Pechnikov.

The children have been to foreign countries many times over the past year and a school year has been missed. Besides, attention to them is declining presently, which imposes additional difficulties on psychologists' work, he mentioned.

Specialists from Moscow, St Petersburg, and other regions have made a lot of efforts to arrange for groups of professional psychologists to work in Beslan on a long-term basis, as it is impossible to solve such problems during a short trip of psychologists from Moscow or St Petersburg, said Mr Pechnikov.

He also mentioned that the problem of providing people with information was not solved in the town, but "this is not a task for psychotherapists, but for the local government."

"When people a deprived of information, they become more worried," Mr Pechnikov remarked.

• More evidence from schoolchildren

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• Life Line Beslan