The Post Deployment Reintegration and mental health issues of the Sri Lankan army soldiers; a situational analysis in the post conflict context of Sri Lanka.

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of mental health status of the Sri Lankan Army Soldiers in the Post Deployment Reintegration stage and how their mental health status affects the self-development, professional life, family life, social life and functional level of the Army Soldier. Further, the researcher explores the existing and prevailing Post Deployment Reintegration Programs and the mental health services being adopted in the Sri Lankan Army. Also, the researcher assesses and evaluates how negative perceptions and pressures emanated from the general civil society affect the mental health status of the aforementioned Army Soldiers. The experimental design adopted for the study is Cross Sectional Research design which is of descriptive in nature. The Sri Lankan Army, being the main study area, is the population of this study. Out of such population, the researcher selected a sample of 40 soldiers with bitter experience of war from three Army Camps where purposive sampling method was applied. Primary data were gathered mainly through qualitative means including four case studies targeting lower rank Army officers. Although the Sri Lankan Army Soldiers had faced with very strenuous, cumbersome, life threatening and tragic situations during 30 year war time, the mental health status of the Sri Lankan Army Soldiers was found to be satisfactory. Moreover, being the employer organization, the guardian and the closest relative of the soldiers and their family members, Sri Lankan Army implements a host of medical and non-medical welfare programmes to safeguard and uplift the mental health status of the Army Soldiers. On the other hand, It was evident that the civil society’s positive perception towards one time martyrs is fading away gradually due to various negative behavioural patterns of some of the absent and in-service soldiers which reflect very badly on the entire civil society. In addition, labelling and stigma were also proved to be in existence among soldier community.