JDF improving capacity to deal with soldiers with mental health issues, says army major

JAMAICA Defence Force (JDF) member Major Rosheide Spence has saluted the army for refusing to camouflage the reality of members within its ranks struggling with mental health challenges.

“I am happy to report today that in the military there is a clinic for psychiatry. I’m happy to report that we have employed counsellors, psychologists. I’m happy to report that…we’re developing the capacity across the military to detect, prevent, and treat certain conditions that affects human beings first because, make no mistake, I might have a badge, I might have a rank, but before that I am Rosheide Spence,” the army man told a recent mental health symposium hosted by the St Mary Parish Court.

Spence, who argued that the JDF is an organisation that “doesn’t speak” and is “steeped in secrecy”, said the army’s approach to mental health is a meaningful one for its members given the fact that the number of people battling this challenge in the society are indicative of an epidemic which has not spared military personnel.