War of the Armed Forces on Stigma

“Mom, I am scared. We are hitting everyone, even civilians”, These were the words of a Russian soldier during the Russia - Ukraine conflict that broke out early this year. Imagine getting a phone call and being told this. 

Imagine being in a situation where you are ordered to strike anyone that comes your way. What is worse? 

As difficult as it might be to read these words on the internet, we cannot even begin to imagine the mental turmoil going on within the mind of someone in that situation. 

The armed forces are often looked upon as badass heroes. Many of us have wondered how they bring themselves to do all that they have to do. Firing guns (as cool as it seems) has repercussions. Every bullet fired leaves a profound impact on both, the one on the receiving end, and the one firing. The mental strength and toughness required to fire at someone or even bring yourself to the front lines during conflict are undervalued. The effects of conflict on armed forces are lesser spoken for. 

We turn our eyes upon seeing a sensitive post on social media. But just Imagine being in a situation where you are constantly under fire! You might see your friends get shot, you might see a stranger get shot, or you might be the one pulling the trigger that kills someone. Facing either of these few scenarios is unimaginable to us but is a reality for many. Military Times last year estimated that four times as many armed troops and vets have died by suicide than in combat. These numbers have been rising over the years and experts state that with so many risk factors inherent to military life, it’s difficult to pin down why. Studies and reports have suggested that “there are clear contributors to suicidal ideation like a high exposure to trauma — mental, physical, moral, and sexual — stress and burnout, the influence of the military’s hegemonic masculine culture, continued access to guns, and the difficulty of reintegrating into civilian life. In addition to these factors, it is imperative we also consider the impact of the military’s reliance on guiding principles which overburden individual service members with moral responsibility, or blameworthiness for actions or consequences, over which they have little control.”

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Stigma being the Villian 

Although the world is open to talking about mental health, military mental health has somehow still been a taboo topic. The world views and the military culture have constantly promoted having a dominant masculine identity that pervades the military. It is one that overwhelmingly favors machismo and toughness. 

Asking for mental help during times of stress, trauma, or suicidal ideation is necessarily at odds with military culture. It falls against the macho masculine identity that has been portrayed for years. High-ranking armed officials have also come forward and admitted that ‘‘acknowledging mental illness earlier was likely to be viewed as a sign of weakness and a potential threat to their careers.’’

While making an effort to combat mental health enemies as they face our country's enemies, Colonel PK ‘Royal’ Mehershi (Retd), a clinical psychologist and author of the Indian Army’s 2007 internal report on ‘suicides and fratricides’ stated that “In the last decade, the Indian Army, in particular, has witnessed about 1,100 suicides with 90 percent of personnel who committed suicide were below officer ranks. About 62 percent of the personnel ending their life are between 25-30 years of age. It is a national loss, as much time, effort and money have been spent on their selection, training, and mustering. Also, these are young deaths, in the prime of their youth with a considerable amount of military training imbibed by them.” Also according to a recent study by the tri-service think tank, United Services Institution (USI), over half of the 1.3 million Army personnel are under severe psychological stress. “Presently more than half of Indian Army personnel seem to be under severe stress. The Indian Army has been losing more personnel every year due to suicides, fratricides, and untoward incidents than in response to any enemy and/or terrorist activities,” states the study. This suggests that physical training of the armed forces is not the only thing that should be given importance. Mental training, regular sessions with a military psychologist, and mindful training routines also need to be worked on. 

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One death, many reasons…

Studies have suggested that major organizational causes of stress amongst Army officers such as inadequacies in the quality of leadership, overburdened commitments, inadequate resources, frequent dislocations, lack of fairness and transparency in posting and promotions, insufficient accommodation and non-grant of leaves, junior commissioned officers, on the other hand, are stressed owing to the delay and denial of leaves, excessive engagements, domestic problems, humiliation by seniors, lack of dignity, unreasonable restrictions on the use of mobile phones, lack of recreational facilities and conflict with seniors as well as subordinates.

Brigadier Rajiv Williams, YSM (Retd), academician, author, and renowned defense and national security analyst, has come forward saying “the primary factors leading to the stark contrast between the suicide rates among junior commissioned officers and commissioned officers is the education and an appropriate work environment. It is a fact that problems increase with poor leadership and peer pressure.” 

While talking about the mental health of our armed personnel has become more prominent and open, we still have a long way to go. There is still much work to be done to make acknowledgment and seeking help for mental challenges a regular practice without the presence of stigma. 

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Role of the government

Just like many of us Mr. Shri Shashi Tharoor questioned the facilities provided by the Indian government to deal with the stress and psychological conditions faced by the Armed Forces Personnel. 

Dr. Subhash Bhamre, Minister of State for Defence gave the following reply outlining government initiates in place, 

Army

• Preventive, Promotive and Curative services are being provided through a network of Psychiatry centers and Community Outreach Programme to train commanders at all levels.
• Major Armed Forces hospitals have well equipped Psychiatry centres capable of providing high quality care and support for psychological conditions.
• Screening of personnel for any stress markers, psychological counselling by trained military psychological counsellors, and training of counsellors is undertaken regularly.
• Religious Teacher JCOs besides preaching religion are also being trained to augment the availability of psychological counsellors in units and provide requisite care in community settings.
• A telephone helpline ‘Mansik Sahayata’ has been established for psychological counselling services at all Command Head Quarters.

Navy

• Counselling of sailors/junior leaders through psychological counsellors
• Issue of advisories on Mental Health from time to time
• Training of senior non-medical sailors on psychological counselling
• Arranging stress relieving activities like Yoga, Art of Living etc. periodically
• Issue of policy by IHQ of MoD (Navy) on ‘Addressing behavioural aberrations & provision of counselling services’. The policy provides for creation of ‘Station Mental Health Centres’, training programmes, mental health education programmes etc.
• Observance of World Mental Health Day (10th October) at all echelons of Naval medical services.

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Air Force

• Employment of Psychological Counsellors trained in clinical psychology at stations for individual and family counselling.
• Training of service personnel for 12 weeks at Command Hospital Air Force, Bangalore for employment as service counsellors.
• Training of officers and airmen in 4 days service mentor course for early recognition of psychiatric symptoms.
• All personnel found to be having any psychiatric deviation are referred to Psychiatrist in nearest service hospital and followed up thereafter.
• Manasik Seva Helpline – All India toll free helpline 1800-110-080 is working at Air Force Central Medical Establishment, Delhi.
• Mental health education and awareness lectures for all air warriors and families. • Website of DGMS (Air) has a separate page on ‘Tips for Healthy Mind’. 

Aforementioned information taken from the link below.

(https://pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=157995)

The real question now is, if the government is doing their bit, why are the suicide rates still high? Why is there no significant improvement ? Where is the gap? What needs to be done now? 

What can you do as a civilian to help them? The best thing according to me, is to spread awareness about various government programs and be an active listener whenever you interact with any army personnel. If you want to know more about how you can help an officer, contact our customer wellness managers on our toll-free number 1800-833-8747, visit us at www.transformhappily.com or reach us at transformhappily@gmail.com. We will guide you in the right direction. 

Let us help you and them transform, happily!