Toolbox Project
Community Timeline
The Ukrainian history timeline represents an ongoing wars and repression throughout the history spectrum. Russian impearlism, WWII, Holodomor and the repression of freedom of speech and expression since the establishment of the Soviet Union until the current Russian invasion in 2022 that caused millions of deaths and lasting effect on people physical and mental health. The Ukrainian citizens have experienced many physical attacks in the past 8 years; it started from the Maidan revolution when the goverment’s force opened fire on protesters in f Kyiv’s main maidan square, in addition the Donbas war in April 2014 a conflict that would claim some 14,000 lives over the next several years and “By early 2022, fighting has resulted in more than fourteen thousand deaths, a quarter of them civilians, and two million internally displaced Ukrainians. Parts of two regions — Donetsk and Luhansk — declare themselves independent republics.”. According Atlantic council, the continuous exposure including the current Russian invasion, caused societal trauma is in addition to the acute PTS directly acquired through personal exposure to the war by more than half a million Ukrainian soldiers, thousands of social services personnel, and countless Ukrainian citizens.
Mental Health Stigma
Ukraine history of constant war caused major mental illness problems that affects up to 30% of the country’s population, such as high rates of suicide, depression and alcohol use disorder. According to Psychiatric Times Ukraine has a stigma around mental health due to the country’s Soviet history. In the past psychiatry was used as way to control people during the Soviet era. As a result, those who appeared to be against the Soviet system considered “mentally ill” and was held in psychiatric facilities. This idea was pass down to many generations. However, the older generation are more hesitant to seek mental care help because of the mental models around mental health hospitals during the Soviet era. Additionally, According to the World Bank report “Mental Health in Transition”, the Ukrainians community may not seek help due to lack of trust in the system, also the lack of knowledge and awareness about mental health problems led to blaming, shaming those who are affected from families or friends, and some community members view seeking treatment is considered to be a sign of weakness and could create a negative impression about the person, therefore many members avoided therapy and treatment.
Mapping of interventions
About: This project was developed by a joint collaboration between UNICEF and the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy to support children’s education and psychosocial in Ukraine.
Target Audience: Children and families who are affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine; in particular families who reside in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Mechanism of Support: Upskill psychologists and teachers on techniques to enhance children and caregivers’ mental health and adaptation strategy. Therefore, when teachers or psychologists interact with children, either inside schools or outside, their communication approach focuses on creating a supportive and protective environment.
Successful intervention: The project was able to enhance children’s psychological distress by more than six times by the end of the program. The teachers and psychologists were able to reach out to around 250,000 children and caregivers in the regions mentioned above.
JustAnswer: National Mental Health Center
About: JustAnswer opened a mental health center in Ukraine through their non-profit organization Arizae Foundation, aiming to improve the mental health of Ukrainians.
Target Audience: Children, adults, and families in Ukraine who suffered from PTSD and/or stress-related mental disorders.
Mechanism of Support: The center will provide up to 15,000 therapy sessions in 2022 and around 40,000 consultations in the following year. These sessions/consultations are open to families who have been living in a harsh and stressful environment due to the war. In addition, patients can access the services for free in the first 3 months of the center’s opening. Then patients with prescriptions can still get treated without a cost, but patients without perspective will have to pay a reduced price from the market.
About: Project Hope is an international NGO that aims in improving the health and well-being of people around the globe. In Ukraine, they aid Ukrainians by sending medical supplies and helping refugees with legal consultation through local organizations.
Target Audience: Ukrainians who need medical supplies such as insulin, needles, hygiene kits… etc. through hospitals and medical facilities.
Mechanism of Support: They provide grants to centers such as “The Center for Psychophysical development” and deliver medical supplies to medical facilities. Project Hope also runs mobile medical units that provide consultations to Ukrainians.
Successful intervention: The project was able to send medical supplies worth$6.5 million to 91 medical facilities that required aid. Their mobile medical unit was able to provide around 12000 consultations. The grant that was given to the local NGO has helped to provide mental health support to around 2200 Ukrainian refugees.
Interviews of community members
Ukrainian refugees’ day to day life doesn’t seem very bright, but something common appeared between all of the refugee interviews is the resilience and the hopeful characteristics they all have towards the current situations. “I don’t know what’s going to happen today or tomorrow or even this evening,” he says. “There’s nothing to do but keep going.” Valery, 48. his life changed overnight, from being HVAC technician to a jobless refugee in a new country. Valery had to leave his home with is paralyzed wife. He is very determined to build a new life for him and his wife without thinking too much in the future.
Another refugee Viktoria with her husband Viktor flew to Poland from Mykolaiv shared her painful experience during the war saying “You were always on alert,” Viktoria recalls, “listening for the whistle of a jet and looking at the sky. And your ears become very sensitive — mine would vibrate a little whenever a plane was approaching.” Even though Vikor went to Poland, she couldn’t keep her mind off of her city after watching a video of a street close from her building in Mykolaiv being destroyed, corpses lie on pavements, and pile of bodies wrapped in a black plastic sheets.“It’s just five minutes from my house,” Viktoria recalls, still struggling to come to grips with it. “There’s nothing strategic anywhere near it. Not even the Nazis were so focused on killing ordinary civilians.”
In the videos many men refugees are either fighting in in Ukraine or on their way back to Ukrainian to fight with determination and anger saying “I’m not afraid because I’m returning to defend my land, I’d die for my country”. Additionally, female refugees between the age 18–22 like Aliona and her cousin had to flee alone to survive she recalls “ I’m scared but excited at the same time to see new people in the US, almost every person’s dream in Ukraine to get to America to see the culture, because we love American music and movies”, she and her cousin mention that their families told them to runaway to safe places to live, therefore they had to leave their families adn travel. Aliona’s mentioned that it was hard to bring families members because her granmother is paralyzed and her brother is in the militiry fighting, she says “I get goosebumps everytime I tell someone that my 23 years old brother is in the hotspots of Ukraine fighting, it’s a horrible feeling”
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