As China's psychological counseling service has just developed in the past few years, the number of psychologists that are specially trained for treatment and intervention for psychological trauma is limited and those having the on-the-spot experience are even fewer, Ni said.

She suggested that the country bring in foreign expertise and train local psychologists who could speak Sichuan dialect.

"In the first stage, psychologists do not need to speak too much. Sometimes a hug is better than any words. But in the long-term, those speaking local dialect will be easier to develop trust with victims and provide better counseling," Ye said.

Besides collecting information, the team will give counseling to some reporters, rescuers and medical workers on the front line.

"Victims might witness disastrous scenes around them but reporters witnessed much more. Some of them might have developed quite serious psychological stress and even trauma. They need counseling as well," Ni said.

The 8.0-magnitude earthquake jolted northwestern part of Sichuan on Monday. The death toll reached 32,476 and more than 220,000 were injured as of 2 p.m. Sunday.

Psychologists nationwide have been actively engaged in helping victims. The Chinese Psychological Society issued a letter Thursday proposing psychologists nationwide to help counterparts in Sichuan.

Beijing Association for Mental Health has also held a program to train volunteers of psychological crisis intervention since Saturday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2008)