British Army To Train Ukrainian Troops in Mental Health First Aid
British Army personnel are to train 180 Ukrainian troops to become combat mental resilience practitioners in 2025. Adding to the 100 who have been successfully trained in 2024. They are to be trained by specialists in the Combat Stress Signposting Course (CSSC).
After passing the course and becoming control stress operators the Ukrainian troops will be able to aid their fellow troops to deal with the strain and stresses of combat as the war in Ukraine enters its third year. The British Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard commented on the training:
‘With hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers receiving mental health first aid training before returning to the frontline, resilience can be spread throughout the ranks of those fighting Russia’s illegal invasion…The Ukrainian people are fighting with huge courage to defend their country, and it is our duty to put them in the strongest possible position.’
The 5 week CSSC training gives its trainees with battle shock management techniques for use before and after the effects of combat, along with trauma risk management. More than 51,000 Ukrainian service personnel have been trained in the UK as part of operation Interflex, which has been running since June 2022. It has been reported that trainees who took part in the operation from September 2023 had already had high combat experience. 91 percent having experienced indirect fire, 69 percent close-quarter combat and 74 percent had treated battlefield casualties in the field.
The implementation of the CSSC course has been implemented into Interflex at the request of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Moral and Phycological Support department. It is hoped once Ukrainian troops who have passed through the training can then take the lessons learned back to the frontlines in their homeland and help spread its teachings among the ranks, which will help them deal with the often hard fought combat conditions of the ongoing war.