By Emmanuel Elebeke 

Nigeria’s National Early Warning Centre, the Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience (OSPRE), security agencies in collaboration with Synapse Services, the Centre for Psychological Medicine have agreed to check post traumatic stress disorder in the country.

This was known at a roundtable  on mental health care for personnel of the armed forces, security services and law enforcement agencies organized by the OSPRE for security agencies.

 The event, was held in Abuja in commemoration of the World Mental Health Day with commandants and representatives of medical corps and units from the defence, security and law enforcement sectors.  

The forum discussed a proposal to establish the Combat Rehabilitation Support and Trauma Service (CRESTS), a multi-agency joint facility for the care of personnel of armed forces, security services and law enforcement agencies to address post-traumatic stress syndrome and other complex disorders, arising from combat-related stressors.

The roundtable deliberated on the rationale, conception and implementation of the programme and its benefits for the nation’s security establishment and the country at large.

 Speaking at the event, the Director General OSPRE, Chris Ngwodo in his opening remarks high highlighted the mental health challenges among the security personnel which he said have an adverse impact on combat readiness and undermines civil-military and civil-security relations. 

He said the situation creates reputational and operational problems for agents of the state, and sows alienation between civilian communities and security agencies.

Ngwodo stated that the mental health of combatants is a public health issue especially with respect to the reintegration of veterans back into civilian life. 

‘Unaddressed mental health challenges can be deeply problematic for the families of serving personnel, and can have an adverse impact on the psyche of children, for instance, and thus create a chain reaction of  psychological trauma.”

Dr Vincent Udenze of Synapse Services Ltd spoke on the available mental health services and underscored the importance  of private sector  in providing essential health care, counseling and other forms of support. 

While noting the strides that various security institutions have made in addressing the mental health needs of officers, he stressed that these efforts need to be consolidated and urged stakeholders to collaboratively improve the quality of mental health care provided for security personnel.  

The forum which included representatives of the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Air Force, Defence Headquarters, the Office of the National Security Adviser as well those of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Department of State Services, the National Park Service, the Nigeria Correctional Service, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency among other agencies agreed on the need to pool resources to promote specialized treatment addressing the mental healthcare needs of their officers. 

The participants however, endorsed the proposed Combat Rehabilitation Support and Trauma Service (CRESTS) as the ideal vehicle for advancing the cause of world class care for their personnel.