Use of art therapy as the panacea to addressing the post trauma stress disorder among journalists covering banditry activities in Nigeria

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Felix Olajide Talabi
 

Redeemer’s University, Nigeria

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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Banditry activities in Nigeria are at an alarming rate to the extent that journalists covering such crime beats are not speared of the nefarious activities of bandits. As a result of the kidnapping for ransom, torture and killing of journalists by bandits, many of such journalists go through psychological trauma to the extent that they fear returning to their duty post of journalism. The study aimed was to investigate the effectiveness of the use of art therapy in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the tendency to resign from the journalism profession among the journalists assigned to banditry beat due to various forms of attack on the journalists. Quasi-experiment was used as the research design for the study to elicit information from the 327 journalists that constituted the sample size. Findings from the study revealed that journalists were affected by high Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and they were tempted to resign from their position as journalists. However, after applying art therapy in the treatment of PTSD for the journalists sampled, there was a significant drop in their PTSD symptoms and the tendency to resign as journalists. Therefore, art therapy is a significant method of treating PTSD among journalists assigned to crime coverage and such would make media houses retain their workers.

Biography

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Felix Olajide Talabi is a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication at Redeemer’s University Ede, Osun State, Nigeria. He has over 90 publications in learned journals. He is a seasoned academic and resource person in the media industry in journalism, public relations, advertising, and media studies. The author has published over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of many professional bodies.