Former Combatants

Abstract

Our focus is on psychosocial and health problems experienced by former combatants. We include all who have actively participated in war, including former members of regular military units, militants, rebels, resistance fighters and guerrillas, and former prisoners of war (POWs). We summarize what is known about their psychosocial problems and describe potential interventions at multiple levels. Recognition of war-related psychosocial problems waxes and wanes after wars, and so does attention paid to combatants' psychosocial needs. Combatants may experience immediate psychosocial problems, long-term psychosocial problems, or both, as consequences of their involvement in armed conflict. Interventions may occur immediately after, or long after, their traumatic experiences. [Text, p. 271] TOPICS TREATED: Nature and scope of the problem (stressful aspects of recruitment and training; gender factors; vulnerable populations; brutalization through killing); Impact/effects of combatant experience (military veterans; prisoners of war; rebels and resistance fighters); Interventions (national and international level of intervention; governmental policy; societal level of intervention; service coordination and capacity building; social organizations, education, and family self-help networks; community and family level interventions; clinical treatment; war-related medical conditions); Recommendations.