The war in Ukraine has led to unspeakable horrors and probably several hundred thousand casualties among civilians and military. Estimates indicate that at least 600,000 Ukrainian men and women have had front line experience. These numbers will continue to increase over time. Ukraine will have a huge need of state-of-the art rehabilitation services. This concerns not only the physical consequences of the war but in particular the psychological ones. Serious mental health consequences are not only an issue for the veterans themselves, but also for the direct social environment e.g. spouse, children, friends and neighbors. They affect the whole community. While we estimate that the majority of Ukrainian veterans and non-military combatants will be able to get back on track with life with the help of their social network, but already now probably up to one hundred thousand of the returnees to civil life need long-term professional support. That number will continue to grow as long as the war lasts. The FGIP has been at the forefront of advocating that an adequate support system needs to be established to provide holistic state-of-the-art rehabilitation programs for the veterans and psychosocial support for their immediate network, and in cooperation with governmental (social, health-related, legal) and non-governmental actors and not-for-profit services. Together with the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) at King’s College in London and the Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv, the FGIP has therefore established, in February 2024, the Veteran Mental Health Center of Excellence (VMHCE) in Kyiv as an academic and clinical base. The VMHCE will focus on three key areas: training, methodological frameworks and research to support Ukraine to build a rights-based, high-quality veteran mental health support system. In May 2024, we have brought together X from X during the conference “Hidden Wounds of War – Trauma, Healing and Recovery among Ukranian Veteran”, organised jointly with the Andrei Sakharove Center for Democratic Development in Lithuania to discuss and brainstorm on the most urgent needs that the VMHCE should address.
The FGIP has a long history in seeding and incubating initiatives at the intersection of human rights and trauma. Currently, we are seeding new initiatives on trauma care in Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Belarus.
Following the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, the need for psychological support for Ukrainian members of the military and civilians who fought at the front line has increased steeply. It is thanks to the FGIP that first steps have now been undertaken to provide these groups with adequate trauma support. Within this context, the FGIP is today continuously training Ukrainian mental health professionals, NGO’s and volunteers in their respective roles to provide psychological and social support to these veterans.
Together with our member organization in Ukraine, to enable training at a large scale to reach those who live in remote areas, we are currently developing an e-learning module that will allow all those in contact with veterans to raise their knowledge to best support veterans independently of their geographical location, and at their own pace.
We reached an agreement with the hospital so that FGIP would cover costs of salaries plus related expenses, while all expenses related to the premises would be covered by the hospital. The hospital also organized Lithuanian language courses, helped with initiating the process of medical registration in Lithuania, and added a part-time Lithuanian psychiatrist to supervise his Ukrainian colleagues and prescribe medication (Ukrainian doctors are not allowed to do so according to EU regulations).
For the center, the former Director’s office was refurbished, which resulted in three rooms, two for consultations and one for administration. All staff members were hired by the Vilnius Mental Health Center. FGIP covers costs of salaries plus related expenses, while all expenses related to the premises are covered by the hospital. The hospital also organized Lithuanian language courses, helped with initiating the process of medical registration in Lithuania, and added a part-time Lithuanian psychiatrist to supervise his Ukrainian colleagues and prescribe medication (Ukrainian doctors are not allowed to do so according to EU regulations).
In March 2023, we hired two more staff members: a Ukrainian psychiatrist from Kramatorsk, who took over from the adult psychiatrist from Mariopol who went on a 4-6 month maternity leave; and a Belarusian psychiatrist from Minsk who is expected to concentrate on a significant number of Belarusian clients (mostly victims of State repression and political refugees).
As of May 2023, the newly hired psychiatrist, Olesya Morozova (originally from Kramatorsk) also consults the two rehabilitation centers for military in Lithuania, which provide rehabilitation to Ukrainian military but do not have a psychological support program.
