The Nyeri County Engagement Forum, a County committee which has been implementing the National Strategy on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, has embarked on a training exercise to equip 160 members of the community and Community Health Promoters (CHPs) with Psychological First Aid skills.
The training which is being undertaken by the Foundation for Dialogue (FFD) and the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) is targeting participants from four high-risk Sub-Counties with a vulnerability of radicalization and which were most affected by previous terror attacks.
According to FFD’s director Dr Michael Mugo the aim is to create a pool of psychological first-aiders who will help the community members deal with trauma.
“The targeting is along the high-risk Sub-Counties of Kieni-East and West, Nyeri Central and Mathira East. We are training CHPs, Nyumba Kumi elders, community policing, church leaders, counsellors from community-based organizations and a few chiefs and their assistants. What we expect is that we will form a network of psychological first aiders and in case of an incident they will be able to provide practical support or link the affected individual to assistance,” said Dr. Mugo.
This is the first time that trauma therapy will be applied as an intervention in the National Strategy on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.
Previously, psychosocial interventions have focused on insulating youth from radicalization into violent extremism through economic empowerment.
The NCTC has also been keen on rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees and radicalized individuals.
On his part, Dr. Oscar Githua a Forensic Psychologist Specializing in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism noted that the training would help build resilience against violent extremism.
He said that the new approach would equally address psychological trauma and mental health issues arising from terror among survivors, their families, and other affected individuals.
“The psychological first aid skills that we are imparting are the first step in ensuring that people protect their mental health after the aftermath of a terror attack,” he noted.
One thing that psychological first aid will do is increase resilience by making people know that they are ready to respond instead of feeling like a victim.
Part of this resilience is that we not only intervene after it has happened, but we are coming in as a preventive mechanism to ensure that people have psychosocial support,” said Dr Githua.
Nyeri which is one of the Counties that has borne the brunt of previous terror attacks is the only County which has developed guidelines for the psychosocial support programme and will be used for benchmarking, when the programme is rolled out next year in Lamu, Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi, Garissa, Isiolo, Uasin Gishu and Kisumu Counties.
By Wangari Mwangi
