The founding meeting of the regional commission on mental health and psychosocial support of the working population during and after the war was held in Dnipro.
The event was supported by the Federation of Employers’ Organizations of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Psychologists and psychotherapists, educators and representatives of enterprises discussed the need of the region to overcome the consequences of war, humanitarian losses and support the mental health of the population of the region, including internally displaced persons.
The war in Ukraine has been going on for a year and a half. During this time, the majority of Ukrainians went through three psychological stages: mobilization, stabilization and exhaustion. Today, psychologists work with the third stage, which manifests itself in sleep and eating disorders, depression and phantoms. Currently, 3 million Ukrainians need psychiatric help, but after the war, this number will increase to 15 million.
According to experts, Ukrainians need to be taught communication with the military and personal psychological hygiene.
– This will be a “new” father/mother, brother/sister, son/daughter, husband/wife, friend/girlfriend… Maybe it will be imperceptible at first. However, after three months, six months, a year, the emotions experienced on the battlefield will most likely take over and anything can act as a trigger. That is why we should engage in educational activities right now, psychotherapist Roman Bezruk shared his thoughts.
We will remind that from the first days of the war, offline and online first aid courses were held for employees of regional communal institutions, residents of united territorial communities of the region, public organizations and everyone who wanted to, to which psychologists and psychotherapists also joined, since during the classes special attention was paid to the issue psychological assistance to the injured person.
Also, in cooperation with the Ukrainian-American charity fund “Together for Ukraine” in June, the psychological assistance center “RAZOM with you” was opened on the basis of one of the communal institutions of the region. The purpose of the Center’s work is: providing psychological support to children, adolescents and adults who suffer from war, help to cope with fear, anxiety, chronic stress, apathy, stabilize the psycho-emotional state of everyone who needs it, identify stress in oneself, loved ones and in the work team, and support, monitor and help themselves and other people.
As of July 1, 2023, psychologists of the Center have provided about 200 consultations, training classes are held, the purpose of which is the formation of basic skills of caring for oneself and others.
In the near future, together with the specialists of the Center for Public Health and the Dnipro State Medical University, the NGO “WOMEN plus” will develop methodological recommendations for maintaining mental health and an algorithm of actions in the event of detecting a person in a state of panic attack, and will conduct psychological first aid courses with the participation of experts in this area.
