On October 31, in a round table format, program authors and project participants discussed the results of six months of work as part of the project "Formation of a system of psychological support for defenders and their families as a guarantee of community stability", implemented by the "YARMIZ" Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation Center with the support of the European Union and the International Fund "Renaissance" within the framework of the joint initiative "European Renaissance of Ukraine".
According to project manager Svitlana Boyko, this project is an approbation of a systematic and continuous approach to the psychological support of military personnel and veterans: "Such an approach assumes that reintegration and rehabilitation is a long process that begins with taking care of the mental health of the military personnel and members of his family even during the service, the development of the system psychological support and establishment of interaction between military and civilian psychologists and preparatory measures for communities and local self-government bodies."
Olga Galchenko - representative of the "Renaissance" foundation: "One of the priorities of our foundation is the assistance, support and development of military personnel and their families, veterans, families of the dead, missing and prisoners of war. We help all these families, namely, we provide support through public organizations that provide services, or help conduct research, or develop certain policies to improve the lives of veterans."
Olga Kuharuk is a psychologist, co-author of the project programs: "What we tried to do with this project is to combine several directions and developments that were already in the Yarmiz Center and see how it can work in the system, to generalize."
Maryna Syrytsia is a psychologist, co-author of the project programs: "One of the key tasks of the project is to hear everyone and convey requests, combining it in your project. We managed to combine the direction of training and support of a serviceman at certain stages, managed to support the families of servicemen and managed to combine the voices of families and the voices of the military so that they were understandable to each other through our projects."
Volodymyr Konchyts - major, deputy commander of the MPZ of military unit A4118: "A large number of people are involved in the Armed Forces, who have come to protect the motherland following the call of their hearts. This is a very large segment of society that is not immediately ready for military service. Psychological assistance is very important, training of commanders - readiness to perform combat tasks, psychological stability are of crucial importance. Among military personnel, there is a great demand for the continuation of such work and a great need for constant training of personnel."
Olga Rodenko - Head of the Department of the Organization for the Provision of Social Services and Interaction with Public Associations of the Fund for Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities: "The fund currently has broader areas of work - since October, the CMU Resolution on the implementation of social services for military personnel and their family members has been issued (note: Resolution No. 1050 dated 03.10.2023). The Foundation will administer this service, the Ministry of Social Policy has already conducted training for such specialists, and this year there will be 5 social service providers from among public associations who will continue their work in 2024. Our territorial units also need such training, so we turned to Yarmiz - if there is such an opportunity to involve our specialists in the areas, they will be extremely grateful. Thank you for the joint work!".
Olga Mozgova - chief administration of social protection of the population: "Such projects are extremely necessary for our society. We have to work to have our own resource, and this project helped us identify the reasons for our fears, make us more open, more professional. This six-month project was only the first step. We have to build our support system so that a serviceman, when he goes to the military, clearly knows that his family will receive support, that his rear will be protected by the state. And when he comes back, if he needs support, he will come to people who can provide it at the appropriate level."
During the project:
- 30 officers involved in the psychological support of servicemen have completed the program "Ensuring the components of mental health of servicemen";
- 70 military psychologists - graduates of VI KNU underwent 24 hours of supervision;
- about 200 people from among military personnel and members of their families participated in legal consultations;
- 19 family psychologists were trained under the program "5 steps of resilience. For those who are waiting" and received 16 hours of supervisory support;
- 40 wives of servicemen joined support groups;
- provided 80 individual psychological consultations;
- 77 representatives of Kyiv local self-government bodies and social protection services joined the training "Role of communities and state administration bodies in building a people-friendly state";
- developed "A guide to the field of mental health of military personnel in wartime conditions» (download for parents https://yarmiz.org.ua/ua/putivnik/)
- updated "A practical handbook of recommendations for war-disabled civilian and military personnel» (download for parents https://yarmiz.org.ua/ua/dovidnik/)
Event broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKXvJLKFdXA
The material was prepared with the support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework of the joint initiative "European Renaissance of Ukraine". The material reflects the position of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the position of the International Renaissance Foundation and the European Union.