Peace keeping study for Waiouru folk

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 581, 11 April 1995, Page 5

Peace keeping study for Waiouru folk

By Michele Monaghan Some Waiouru people will shortly be receiving or may have already received a questionnaire in the mail from the Army Psychology Service (APS). The questionnaire is the first of three in a study of the affects of peace keeping service in Bosnia. People selected to take part in the research may not be going to Bosriia, but are being requested to be part of a control group. There are three control groups consisting of military personnel performing normal duties, civilian personnel from civilian

firms and military personnel on overseas tours other than peace keeping lasting longer than one month. Operation Radian Two (currently in Bosnia) is the experimental group the three control groups will be compared to, to see how and if peacekeeping duties affects soldiers. Army psychologist Lieutenant Kerry Eustace said the questionnaire will take about 30 minutes to fill out. She urged people to take the time to complete and return the questionnaire so the study can be comprehensive and 'robust'.

"If we discover definite jj changes we'll have a good f case to take to the war pen- ij sions board for retiring solj- » U J * diers, she said. The study will also help army psychologists to re- | fine the current pre-deploy-ment and debrief packages to see if they are actually working and if any changes are needed she said. Lt Eustace said that very little research hadbeendone 1 on United Nations peace keeping, but there was a definite agreement that peacekeeping is a stressful thing for whatever reason.