November 5, 2014
Ukraine
In a week beginning of the 13th October a special training for Ukrainian psychologists took place. How it came about, how it proceeded and what will be the next steps, were reported by Vladislav Vik, program manager of Caritas Czech Republic and Liudmila Sukhareva, training participant and project coordinator from the Ukrainian side.
“Everyone who participated had studied psychology. But it doesn´t mean anything. Noone taught us how to work with someone in an acute stateof crisis and trauma. We started to feel that we had missed something when it came to dealing with to injured people in Majdan. We spoke with with the families of victims and saw very aggressive soldiers,” said Liudmila Sukhareva, psychologist and coordinator of a psychosocial help project in Ukraine which is sponsored by Caritas Czech Republic in cooperation with Caritas Ukraine and Fire Brigade Czech Republic.
How did this psychosocial help project start in Ukraine?
VV: The project started in response to a political situation in Ukraine. During Majdan many people reached out to our colleagues from Caritas Ukraine. The people were in a state of shock and traumatised. Many of them had lost a family member or had friends who were injured. It was necessary to train psychologists and other workers of the helping professions, including volunteers and priests, to prepare them to provide the first psychological aid to people in crisis. A basic, three-day training took place in Lvova and in Kyev in May of this year. Sixty people participated. During our time together, we realized we needed to delve deeper into the topic. We all agreed that something should be developed that could be expanded in Ukraine. Thus the idea came about of training trainers in crisis intervention and how to work with trauma victimsWho sponsored the project?
VV: the project was fully paid from the collection for help for Ukraine announced by Caritas Czech Republic. Herewith, I would like to thank all those who contributed or are still contributing. Thanks to them, it is possible to provide psychological aid to victims of conflict and their families.
Who were the participants taking the training and what is their role in the whole project?
LS: All 15 participants were psychologists chosen from different parts of Ukraine including the east part situated in the centre of the war conflict. The interest in crisis intervention is now huge among psychologists in Ukraine. Most of them work in the service professions, for example as school psychologists. After the escalation of the Majdan situation we started helping injured people and survivors. The first criteria for choosing the training participant was their active participation throughout the turmoil. We wanted people “working on the ground” who can show with practical examples what they deal with on a daily basis and how to improve on them. And we expect a lot from them – they promised with their participation that they will share their knowledge and techniques with their colleagues and trained volunteers.
Tell us about cooperatiing with the Fire Brigade Czech Republic.
VV: Caritas Czech Republic has been cooperating with the Fire Brigade for several years now, during times of flooding. We introduced the idea of a project for Ukraine, outlining what we would like to share with the psychologists in Ukraine to the the Fire Brigade and they agreed to cooperate. I truly appreciate the enthusiasm and professional approach of the psychologists we worked with. I think it was very helpful for our Ukraine partners to see examples of some stabilisation or relaxation techniques that we use in acute stress phases. The participants were very happy to learn about the standardised form of first psychological help used by firemen, and hoped to use it in their country after translation.
LS: I think that there is something special among the participants and lecturers that exceeds the scope of professional collegiality. We shared life stories we deal with on a daily basis. The lecturers were very helpful in meeting our needs. Some participants suggested shortening the part of first psychological aid that they are already familiar with and attending a trauma theme instead. Other psychologists from the west of Ukraine who have less experience working with people in an acute phase of crisis suggested working on this subject in detail. This led to a supervision workshop in the form of a Balintovsky group (a method of problem solving used in psychotherapy) headed by David Dohnal, where we worked on a real case.
At the end, one of the lecturers stated that he felt that it takes more than one week to get to know each other. I agree and I believe that we will be cooperating further.
