THE ROLE OF THE MILITARY CHAPLAIN IN PRESERVING THE MENTAL HEALTH OF MILITARY PERSONNEL

Abstract

The article deals with the military chaplains involvement in the process of psychological support of military personnel professional activity, examines the views of psychologists on the relevance of applying the religious faith potential in the context of maintaining the individual mental health. The article deals with the results of an empirical research of the relevance of the involvement of military chaplains in the process of preserving the mental health of servicemen. The main results of the research are outlined, which were obtained using the following psychological methods of scientific cognition: observation, conversation, questionnaire and generalization of independent characteristics, etc. The results of the survey of respondents (servicemen of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine) were presented. Among the servicemen, a total of 130 respondents (82 men and 48 women), representatives of all regions of our country were interviewed. The category of believers included 75% of respondents (98 people), 85% (110 people) were the vast majority of Orthodox. Particularly interesting are the results obtained on the question: ‘In case of problems with the moral and psychological state, who would you rather turn to for advice?’, where 50% of respondents indicated the commander of the unit, 21% of respondents indicated the psychologist of the military unit, 9% of respondents indicated the military chaplain, 5% of respondents indicated the civilian psychologist, which indicates the formation of the psychological culture of servicemen and the availability of a request for the work of military chaplains in the issue of providing psychological assistance to soldiers. The prospect of further scientific research may be the research and generalization of the practical experience of military chaplains offering psychological support to servicemen in the combat zone.