Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Internally Displaced Persons
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Internally Displaced Persons
ABSTRACT
This investigation assessed Post Traumatic Disorder among Internally Displaced Persons in Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State. This research was undertaken for the benefit of humanity. Chapter one discusses the study’s backdrop and the issue of internally displaced persons in Plateau State’s Jos North Local Government Area.
The second chapter reviews the relevant literature on post-traumatic stress disorder and the theoretical underpinning. Based on the study’s findings, it was recommended in chapter three that the following Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) victims of conflict, insurgency, and natural disaster receive both chemotherapy and psychotherapy in order to keep body and soul together and prevent an increase in the incidence of mental disorders, and that the victims be highly compensated.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Many African communities continue to be afflicted by long-standing hostilities that have resulted in widespread trauma for their populations. Nigeria has a number of low-level conflicts that result in persistent bloodshed without the country being officially at war.
Over the last decade, the political issue over ‘indigene’ rights and political participation in Jos, Plateau State’s capital, Nigeria, has escalated into a protracted ethnic strife (Krause 2011). This ongoing battle frequently involves the maiming, murdering, and burning of homes, vehicles, and other property.
These catastrophes have resulted in injuries, emotional distress, and impairments, as well as the loss of homes and livelihoods. Since late 2001, when the first significant unrest in more than three decades erupted in Jos, at least 4,000, if not 7,000, people have died.
More than 10,000 people were displaced following the 2008 unrest, and over 18,000 people were internally displaced as a result of violence in 2010. All sides suffer significant losses since livelihoods are disrupted (Krause, 2011).
The intensity of internal displacement has become a global issue. It has emerged as one of the greatest human tragedies of the twenty-first century. By 2010, it is anticipated that about 50 million people would have been internally displaced as a result of conflicts or abuses of human rights (World Health Organisation, 2009).
According to many organisations, the number of victims ranges from one to nine million people. In addition, social, economic, political, legal, psychological, and health issues associated with internal relocation persist.
Conflicts and conflicts cause irreversible changes in society dynamics (Somasundoram, 2009). As a result, the majority of internally displaced persons (IDPs) were affected by societal traumas suffered by conflict and disaster victims. To give effective assessments of IDPs, most approaches consider the effects on individuals and society (Summerfield, 2003).
Internally displaced people (IDPs) are people who have been forced or compelled to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residence, primarily in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situation or generalised violence, violation of human rights, or natural or human-caused distress, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised state border (OHCHR, 2007).
It is consequently vital to distinguish between refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). If displaced people cross an international boundary and fall under one of the applicable international legal instruments, they are deemed refugees.
IDPs reflect two factors: the coercive or otherwise involuntary nature of movement, and the fact that such mobility occurs within national borders. First, armed conflict, violence, human rights violations, and disasters are some of the most prominent reasons of involuntary movements (NRC, 2009).
Nigeria’s history has been marked by various forms of political violence and conflict since achieving republican independence. The implication is that all of these problems have affected men, women, and children.
Nigeria remains a multi-ethnic country with 350-500 linguistic groups and a population of roughly half Christians and Muslims (Salawu, 2010; Paden, 2008; Tiffen, 1968; Hansford, Bendor-Samuel, & Stanford, 1976).
Nigeria has a long history of ethno-religious strife, and the past year has seen an alarming increase in violence and its impact on civilians. Almost a year after spiralling violence between predominantly Muslim cattle herders and Christian farmers in central Plateau state killed at least 1,000 people and displaced 258,000 others, many of those who fled are still too afraid to return to their villages and homes.
The National Commission for Refugees (NCFR) provides cumulative information on internal displacement. In February 2014, it claimed that there were 3.3 million IDPs in the country as of December 31, 2013.
It did not give numbers for 2014. According to the Presidential Initiative on the North-East (PINE) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Boko Haram has displaced 1.5 million people in the northeast (OCHA, September 23, 2014).
The UN resident humanitarian coordinator’s office and the Abuja regional branch of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) both fail to give impartial estimates.
In addition to resulting in a huge number of immediate direct losses among fighters and civilians, these conflicts have the potential to affect public and mental health outcomes in a variety of ways (Davis, Kuritsky, 2002; Kalipeni, and Oppong, 1998).
Armed war has far-reaching and long-term repercussions on civilians’ mental health. One important mental health outcome of battle is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Musisi (2004).
PTSD is an anxiety illness characterised by a syndrome that develops after a person witnesses, participates in, or hears about a severe traumatic event.
The individual responds to this experience with anxiety and powerlessness, continuously relieves the occurrence, and attempts to avoid being reminded of it. Association (2013); Hodes (2000).
The disorder frequently develops weeks, months, or even years after the stressful event. PTSD symptoms include nightmares and flashbacks, insomnia, difficulty of focus, feelings of isolation, anger, and guilt. Obilom, Thacher, 2008; Rehn, Sirleaf, 2002).
The prevalence of PTSD is approximately 8% in the general population, whereas lifetime prevalence rates range from 5-75% among high risk groups whose members have undergone traumatic experiences. Steel, Chey, Silove, Marnane, and Bryant, 2009; Kessler, Sonnega, Bromet, and Hughes, 1995.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, around 30-70% of people who have lived in combat zones experience symptoms of PTSD and depression.
Offspring of Holocaust survivors had a higher prevalence of mental disorders such as mood, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders, as well as PTSD, than the general Jewish population who had not experienced the Holocaust (Yehuda, Bell, Bierer, and Schmeidler, 2007).
A research conducted among residents of Jos, Nigeria, few months after the first major ethno-religious conflict in 2001 discovered a 41% prevalence of PTSD symptoms (Obilom and Thatcher, 2008).
Lifetime PTSD prevalence rates are often greater in populations exposed to protracted conflicts or recurring natural catastrophes (Margoob and Sheikh, 2006; Yaswi and Haque, 2008).
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