Consultant psychiatrist Professor Wendel Abel is discouraging the use of military-style interventions, also known as boot camp, in the management of young people exhibiting behavioural problems.

“They really have not been shown to be useful and effective, and in fact a lot of times they actually re-traumatise; our approach to dealing with trauma must be a trauma informed approach,” Abel said at GraceKennedy Foundation’s Annual Lecture, at which he was guest speaker, last Wednesday.

The respected consultant psychiatrist and therapist who was responding to a query from a member of the audience was adamant that boot camp-styled interventions are more likely to cause more harm than good.

“We must be able to recognise the signs and the symptoms of trauma, but we also must ensure that we don’t want to re-traumatise people, and it’s really that whatever therapeutic intervention we have must follow the science and it must be evidence-based but the military-style work doesn’t work,” said Abel, who is head of community health, and psychiatry at The University of the West Indies.

Arguing the point further, Abel said individuals who have served in the military and who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder are not placed in military camps as part of their recovery.

“They’ve had to develop very comprehensive trauma therapy to deal with these individuals… they don’t put them in a military camp because they know that it can also be re-traumatising for individuals,” he said.

“People are advocating for it [but] these methods are re-traumatising and we must avoid them. Whatever we do, we must follow the evidence and follow the science,” Abel insisted while noting that the notion that the army is a “disciplined” organisation might be the impetus for such calls.

“If you are saying that a lot of the issues have to do with indiscipline, you want them in a disciplined situation but it is different. Structure and so on is helpful, but the truth also is that one size doesn’t fit all,” he said.

According to Abel, while there are many approaches that can be used to treat such children, “whatever approach we use must be non-judgemental it must be based on love and support and care”.