The relevance of social-rehabilitation in post-traumatic stress disorder symptom-reduction among internally displaced elderly persons in Borno State Nigeria

Abstract

There is huge evidence showing that internally displaced persons are highly vulnerable to mental health problems especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In view of this, this study examined cultural activities relevance to PTSD symptoms reduction of internally displaced elderly persons (IDEPs) in Borno state, Nigeria. This study used a quasi-experimental design. A total sample of (N=40) IDEPs were purposively selected from 2 internal displacement camps with each displacement camp comprising 20 participants. The participants were assigned to Social Rehabilitation (SR) treatment group and control group. A pre-tested, validated instrument was adapted to the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics where used to analyze the data (p ˂ 0.05). Results show that, at baseline, PTSD symptoms between the SR treatment group and control group was (89.25±12.26 and 103.95±14.85) respectively, while post-test values of PTSD symptoms only dropped for the SR treatment group (64.25±5.77) and not for control group (104.0±14.90). More so, at the 13th week follow-up, the SR treatment group, demonstrated higher scores of PTSD symptom-reduction, (64.25±5.77 an aggregate of 28.01%) compared to the control group. Overall mean score of PTSD symptoms reduction, showed changes of value (-25.0 and +0.05) on symptoms reduction in the SR treatment group and control group respectively. The study concludes that, Social Rehabilitation is an effective cultural relevant means in reduction of PTSD Symptoms among IDEs.

Key words: Social-Rehabilitation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Internal Displacement, Elderly, Symptom-reduction