The women and children affairs ministry opened the National Trauma Counselling Centre at the Department of Women Affairs building yesterday to provide counselling to women victims of violence.
The centre was launched under a joint venture project titled 'Multi-sectoral Programme on Violence against Women' undertaken by the Bangladesh government and the Danish government.
Speakers at the launching ceremony said the dismaying variety of violence, including physical, mental and sexual abuses, leaves deep psychological scars in women, causing damage to their mental health.
The women victims require immediate psychological support to reintegrate into society with dignity, they added.
A study conducted in 2007 on the victims who received assistance at the One-stop Crisis Centre under the project shows about 91 percent of victims suffer from clinical anxiety and about 81.4 percent suffer from chronic depression, a mental disorder highly ignored in the country.
Post traumatic stress disorder, suicidal tendency, fear and loss of confidence are also among other psychological crisis facing these women.
Inaugurating the centre, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury emphasised the need to establish a sustainable counselling system for women victims.
This type of support system tends to close down when the respective project reaches the closing stage, she added.
The centre must maintain the quality of its service, she stressed.
Dr Abul Hossain, project director of Multi-sectoral Programme on Violence against Women, said that apart from providing counselling, the centre will also work to create a network among the professionals working on the issue.
However, lack of trained therapists and other experts poses a challenge to the centre, he said.
The centre will also conduct research and organise training sessions for social welfare officers dealing with the issue of violence against women at different levels.
Rokeya Sultana, secretary to the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, and Rawshan Ara Begum, director general of the Department of Women Affairs, also spoke.