Insurgency: Our husbands exhibiting abnormal behaviour, troops’ wives cry out
Wives of returning soldiers and police officers who served in conflict zones yesterday lamented behavioural changes in their spouses.
The president of the Defence and Police Officers Wives Association (DEPOWA), Mrs Victoria Irabor, who led her members on a courtesy call to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, at Army headquarters, said officers and soldiers usually returned from conflict zones with physical injuries and suppressed emotional trauma.
“One of the major issues is the distinct behavioural traits of returning officers such as nightmares, anxiety, insomnia, and bursts of anger among others. These were not synonymous with our husbands’ characters before deployment,” she said.
She said consultations with medical experts had shown that those behavioural changes were triggered by trauma and could be known as Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD).
She said the association had concluded plans to establish a state-of-the-art PTSD diagnostic centre.
“Consequently, we intend to collaborate with the Chief of Army Staff to provide solutions by uniting our voices. It’s our desire to have a reintegrated structure for our officers and husbands to ensure that they return to us in good health and total wellness.
“It’s for this reason that I wish to propose the establishment of a (PTSD) evaluation and rehabilitation centre. It’ll evaluate, counsel and provide adequate support to officers, soldiers and by extension, their wives, prior to reintegration from conflict zones.
“We have a good number of medical facilities across military formations in the country, but they do not provide thorough diagnostic services to tackle some of these emerging challenges,” she said.
Responding, Attahiru commended DEPOWA and all the services’ officers’ wives’ associations for their foresight in addressing the physical and emotional needs of personnel and their families.
He said the various programmes being executed across barracks were beneficial to all, assuring that all the services would support DEPOWA.