Can someone who has not fought understand military?

Crisis psychology training in Kropyvnytskyi teaches how to provide additional psychological assistance to people who have been in the area of active hostilities

The Center-Veteran, a resource center for assistance to Anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine (ATO) /Joint Forces Operation (JFO) veterans and internally displaced persons, was established in Kropyvnytskyi in 2016. After the full-scale invasion, it was reformed into the municipal institution "Regional Center-Veteran". Today, the center provides legal, psychological, and social assistance to Ukraine's defenders, their families, and the families of those killed, captured, and missing.

According to Inesa Kolpak, the center's director, they received 10,306 appeals from citizens in 11 months of 2023. For comparison, there were 2670 requests for the whole of 2021. The center has recently received additional space, which has made it possible to work with a large number of people at the same time. An Ukrinform correspondent at the center was told about the Crisis Counselor course, which started in November 2022 to train anyone to provide psychological assistance.

FEELINGS OF ANXIETY, DEPRESSION ARE A REASON TO SEE A PSYCHOLOGIST

Andriy Fomenko, deputy director of the Center-Veteran, a crisis psychologist, says that people mostly come to him on the basis of recommendations from friends and information on social media.

- We are talking about the military who are returning to recuperate. Those who know me pass the information on to their comrades. In a month, I received about 15 new requests, including from family members of the military. Everyone first goes for initial counseling. After that, some stay in the office, others move on. In general, if we add the telephone mode, I conduct 35-50 consultations per month. Requests for psychological assistance can also be sent from communities if they cannot process them for some reason," says the psychologist.

He notes that there is still stigma and prejudice in society against receiving psychological help, although this phenomenon has become less common recently.

The reason for seeking help can be a constant feeling of anxiety and depression, the psychologist adds.

- If you have been feeling depressed for about three weeks, it is better to see a psychologist. This can be a manifestation of, for example, subdepression. Pay attention to sleep disturbances, eating disorders, or perhaps outbursts of aggression towards people in the form of spontaneous reactions. When it comes to bereavement, it is a process. Despite the widespread belief that it has to happen, that it is a natural path, complications can actually arise when a person focuses exclusively on internal pain and loses the ability to take care of themselves. If we talk about fighters in general, we can observe a violation of social qualities and social ties. That is, the social circle is destroyed, and problems arise in families," adds Fomenko.

According to him, if the problem is beyond the psychologist's competence, the person is referred to another specialist: a neurologist, psychiatrist, etc. The Veteran Center strives to develop such a multidisciplinary team.

"CRISIS COUNSELOR" - A COURSE FOR EVERYONE

In addition to his direct work as a psychologist, in November 2022, Andriy Fomenko launched the Crisis Counselor course.

- This course is largely a manifestation of concern for the psychological awareness of our society. So that people can provide prompt assistance, including psychological help, to those who are going through crisis moments. The course is attended not only by people with psychological education. These are also bereaved family members, volunteers, medical workers, police officers and other law enforcement agencies, and generally those involved in civil-military cooperation. After all, they need information on how to interact with veterans and what problems they face, how to interact with families of missing persons under special circumstances, with families of prisoners of war, with families of fallen defenders of Ukraine. We also provide information on how, even without education, to help a traumatized person who has been in an active combat zone. How to properly direct them, where to recommend them," says Fomenko.

The psychologist noted that one should help competently. Giving incorrect recommendations risks putting yourself in danger and harming someone else. Thus, incorrect comments can retraumatize a person.

The Crisis Counselor course consists of three blocks. The first one is about self-help. After all, a person who helps others must take care of themselves. The second block begins with first aid and includes work with trauma. It provides an understanding of the essence of trauma, traumatic episode, post-traumatic stress disorder, and adaptation syndromes.

- We often hear about PTSD. But in reality, people misuse this name. In particular, there is a perception that people with PTSD are aggressive, walk around with grenades, etc. But these are myths, and someone has to debunk them. We need to understand that people just need our help," emphasizes Fomenko.

The third block of the Crisis Counselor course teaches how to work with a bereaved person. The topic of death is always difficult, so it is very important to take the right actions towards such people, the psychologist explains.

The course lasts three weeks. They try to limit the group to two dozen students so that everyone can communicate with each other. The classes are not only theoretical, there is also practice.

- There are things that a person should know, and there are things that they should learn. In particular, to open up to a person who is experiencing difficult emotions. As my colleague Vlad Zubchenko says, sometimes in order to help a person, you need to be able to ask for help," says Andriy Fomenko.

More than 100 people have already received certificates of completion.

THE COURSE IS ALSO AVAILABLE TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS

The Safe Future charitable foundation and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) became interested in the Crisis Counselor course.

- These two organizations asked us to show them what we can do and how we train consultants. They collected feedback from those who had completed the Crisis Counselor course. They realized that the information is needed, people know what to do with it. So they offered us cooperation, which is ongoing," says the psychologist.

"Currently, the Safe Future Foundation and UNICEF are financially supporting the course.

- They have been supporting us for over a year. To be precise, we started working free of charge, and then the foundations joined in and took over all the funding," says Andriy Fomenko.

According to him, there is no direct representation of the course in the communities of Kirovohrad region. However, each class includes people from different parts of the region who apply the knowledge and skills they have gained in their localities.

- There are 49 psychological hubs in the region, and our colleagues are everywhere. I do not form groups for training, but I invite and integrate my colleagues into them if I see their willingness to work with a particular category of people who need help. We now cover, for example, Novoukrainka, Adzhamka, Bobrynets, and Petrivskyi district. In general, there are many more regions, and I'm afraid I'm forgetting some of them. For example, medical workers from the Novhorodkivskyi district took our course. We went to Onikiyevo, Pomichna, and Haivoron for short-term meetings, but this is exclusively a volunteer activity of the Center-Veteran," the psychologist says.

The "Crisis Counselor" course is currently in its ninth enrollment. According to Andriy Fomenko, the center's immediate plans include opening a school of extreme crisis psychology. It should start in January and will be open exclusively for specialists: doctors, psychologists and others.

"YOU SHOULD OVERCOME YOUR FEARS AND ASK FOR HELP"

Oleksandr, a veteran, is one of the graduates of the Crisis Counselor course. He says he decided to study to be useful to his comrades.

- "A guy who is currently in the hospital contacted me through his fellow soldier. He has some problems, but he is too embarrassed to go to psychologists. We talked, and I told him that I could not help him, because I am not a psychologist. But I know some specialists whom I can recommend. But many military men have an opinion that if a psychologist has not fought, he cannot assess the condition of a person who has fought. This is one of the reasons why I took the course. I know Andriy Fomenko, he invited me. We discussed similar fears and other prejudices, especially requests from the military," the veteran says.

Oleksandr says that he does not provide direct assistance to the military, but now he knows how to refer them to psychologists. By the way, he met them during the course. The veteran notes that he has begun to better understand how psychologists see the problem and can recommend specialists to the guys.

He also notes that he has begun to understand the emotional state of his comrades more.

- "I had fewer problems because I had experience and went to war during the full-scale invasion and was more prepared. I knew what I could see and experience there. That's why I learned something valuable from the course not for myself personally, but if my comrades-in-arms or people who need help turn to me now, I will be able to provide them with some kind of first aid, pre-psychological help," Oleksandr notes.

He says that if there is a need, one should definitely seek psychological help from specialists.

- Even to the regular ones that are available in hospitals. "Regardless of whether these psychologists fought or not, they still have experience and practice," says Oleksandr. "So it makes no difference whether a psychologist was at the front or not, he is an expert in his field and understands how to provide qualified assistance. In fact, even among those who fought, everyone has their own emotional state. Each person endures war in his or her own way. Some people are helped by their families and do not need to see a psychologist, while others find it difficult to endure because they cannot share their experiences with their families for some reason. So I still advise you to overcome your fears and seek help.

Myroslava Lypa, Kropyvnytskyi

Photo: Facebook/Andriy Fomenko