May 05, 2006
BBC All in the Mind on the impact of combat:
BBC All in the Mind has a special on the psychological impact of combat and military psychiatry.
New presenter and psychiatrist Dr Kwame McKenzie investigates the mental health provisions of the armed forces, and the new developments introduced to support the emotional well-being of soldiers operating under intensely stressful conditions.
Dr Kwame McKenzie takes a look at the mental health of the military. With nearly one in 5 US soldiers returning from Iraq with psychological problems there's growing concern about the mental health of soldiers. Dr McKenzie attends a NATO conference in Brussels looking at psychological support, and talks to Major General Patrick Cammaert, a former Dutch Marine, who now leads 15,000 UN peace keepers in DR Congo. Lieutenant-Colonel Carl Castro and Dr Brenda Wiederhold explain how the US is using predeployment briefings and Virtual Reality to help soliders cope, and Professor Simon Wessely talks about the situation in Britain.
The Army is using the psychological model of Transformational Leadership to reform its training regime, and All in the Mind visits the Infant Training Centre at Catterick to see if it's making any difference to new recruits.
And Dr McKenzie talks to two veterans being treated by Combat Stress about their psychological breakdowns following active service.
Presumably, they mean Infantary Training Centre rather than Infant Training Centre!
Link to All in the Mind webpage.
realaudio of programme.
