Features of restoring the mental health of law enforcement officers who participated in the operation of the United Forces

Abstract

Based on the analysis of existing developments in the field of psychological rehabilitation of combatants, as well as own empirical research on the problem of combat psychological traumatization of individuals, the author has elaborated and presented own program “Decompression”.
 Measures of psychological work of this program are designed for three or four days. Participation involves the employees of the units (all of them), who had suffered psychological traumatic events: death, injury, injurious effect of a person; stay in isolation (in captivity, hostage, surrounded); work with the remnants of human bodies; prolonged stay in the conditions of the operation of the United Forces, staying under the fire of the enemy, the use of weapons to defeat the enemy.
 It is envisaged that during the period of decompression, the employees (combatants) should be involved in a dynamic, not boring and uncomplicated activity. Experience shows that if servicemen do nothing during this period, this will greatly contribute to the development of negative individual and group experiences and conditions, the occurrence of misconduct, drunkenness, drug addiction, etc.
 This program contains a set of group and individual work methods, namely: debriefing, aimed at switching the minds of employees (combatants) from the zone of extreme conditions to the usual life, receiving relief, reducing the feeling of uniqueness and abnormality of own reactions, reducing internal tension, reducing the severity of psychological consequences after experienced stress; sessions of psycho-emotional self-regulation; treatment measures; individual psychological counseling.
 At the end of the work, a conclusion-prognosis is drawn up for each employee who participated in the mental health restoration program “Decompression’ and recommendations on the possibility of further admission to the independent performance of the tasks of the service, the need for medical supervision, treatment, rehabilitation, enrollment in the group of strengthened psychological attention, etc. are provided.