Battallian stress management strategic plan in operational areas role of clinical psychologist . Case of rwanbatt 37 in Sudan.

Abstract

A military deployment has three different phases. Each phase is punctuated by It‟s own stressors. The military training , exercise , rehearsals,manoeuvers and other psycho educative exercises aim to shape the personality of the soldiers to develop endurance skills which would increase soldiers‟ resiliency towards multiple potentially stressors encountered during different circumstances of their military carrier include peace keeping mission. Despite those exercises building resiliency , some soldiers consult the level one hospital with different symptoms, some of them are transferred in the Military Hospital with physical and/ or psychological exhaustion symptoms from military training, other are referred from military operations include peace keeping mission in Soudan. A deployment is a military duty away from home, it may be short or long according to the circumstance and need. It „s always a moment of strong emotions which can very from adaptative to maladaptative coping mechanisms in response to stressors of separation with family according to family- social role of each soldier. A military deployment usually has different phases and each one has his own potentially stressful factors which needs adaptation from every soldiers. No one can escape from the stressful factors of deployment; in case of maladjustment to stressors some individuals can develop negative behavioral changes and low moral which can endanger themselves, their comrades, the military cohesion, decrease the man power and have a negative impact on the global success of operations. During a military operation it „s usually a rule to help soldiers to prepare themselves physically and psychologically through rehearsals ,exercises and instructions. The effect of meeting in one camping site for preparation is good for mutual socialization etc… For all these reasons, a psychological screening must be always incorporated in medical screening during the pre-deployment phase, and a psychological accompaniment appears to be useful through out all phases of deployment. The chain of command usually has to support all initiatives related to stress management strategies according to the circumstances. The stress management becomes a task of every body and the psychologist becomes an officer from the chain of command and from the medical team who can explain the new behavioral symptoms of a soldier affected psychologically. All the chain of command has the power to help and cure emotional casualties in collaborations with psychologists. Is there any specific approach related to military emotional causalities or psychological treatment ?No ,Even if it exist the good collaboration of the Battalion psychologist, the whole battalion medical team and the chain of command remain the corner viii

stone in the therapeutic process of emotional casualties. This collaboration leads them to understand the behavioral change of the client and get common understanding of the way to help soldiers experiencing stress and trauma symptoms to find solution to his fearful problems. In this research the phenomena of behavioral change related to psychological trauma and stressful events from military operations and peacekeeping operations in particular are examined (The pressure of preparation including rehearsals, personal needs, resocializing , evaluating the sense of belonging, sense of cohesion, adaptability of each one in his new unity, problem solving process analysis, the reaction and behavior on medical results through pre and post test counseling). Secondly, It tries to analyze the effective stress management strategic plan of Rwanbatt37 deployed in Soudan (Darfur) in 2013 and the way each soldier perceive and live the military operations as his own experience, mobilizing all his resources in order to adapt himself and develop coping mechanism in order to give the best of his contribution to the success of his battalion or contingent, committed for working hard to succeed the assigned mission. Thirdly, it tries to analyze and appreciate ideally the complementarity effort of the chain of command include the medical team in terms of global medical treatment and problem solving for each particular case related to stress management ,psychological trauma and stress prevention. Despite the efforts of Rwandan contingent in terms of stress prevention some cases needed special care and treatment. Those cases are considered as designated patients of the whole system and calls the attention of the leadership to reinforce and organize much better the psychological care of soldiers during military operations and peacekeeping mission in particular. The method used was the participant observation associated to a retrospective analysis of findings after mission in Soudan, all those two first methods were sustained by the documentation from clinical cases observed and remarks from general soldier´ behavioral monitoring from the chain of command on terrain during the three different phases of Rwanbatt37 deployment in Soudan . The result of this analysis allows us to conclude that the majority of Rwanbatt37 soldiers‟ adapted well in mission area despite the only case of Suicide case without any other loss which was the most fearful case encountered. Among mental diseases relative to acute stress; Depression, PTSD and other somatization symptoms are found among the majority of cases hospitalized at least once in level one hospital. Light amnesia, anger and some cognitive- behavior symptoms are experienced in some cases but considered as normal. The most of symptoms disappear when soldiers arrive home. ix

Due to stigma associated to mental disorder in Rwanda, some soldiers consult a clinical psychologist after experiencing acute symptoms or on demand of an administrative or judicial leader.