Following the full-scale invasion of Russia into the Ukraine in February 2021, and the violent repression of demonstrations in Belarus in the context of the latest presidential elections in August 2020, security forces arbitrarily detained thousands of people and systematically subjected hundreds to torture and other ill-treatment. Prison staff had been ordered to create unbearable conditions for everyone arrested on political reasons. Today, more human rights defenders and political activists are gradually being released in Belarus, and many of them prefer to leave the country, mostly to Lithuania, a country that is already hosting a large community of refugees from the Ukraine. Given the lack of access to trauma care in Lithuania, the FGIP, in August 2022, seeded an in-person crisis center in Vilnius. The role of this Vilnius Psychotrauma Center is to provide specialized mental health care support to Ukrainian and Belarusian refugee communities in Lithuania (currently approximately 80,000 and 48,000 persons respectively), and to function as an interface between these communities and regular mental health care services. It has been opened in partnership with the Vilnius hospital and counts today on three psychiatrists from and one nurse from the Ukraine as well as psychiatrist from Belarus who provide not only mental health support to the Ukrainian and Belarussian refugee community in Lithuania, but also consult the two military rehabilitation centers in Lithuania, which provide rehabilitation to Ukrainian military but do not have a psychological support program. The hospital itself provides the premises for the Center, organizes Lithuanian language courses for our staff, helps with initiating the process of medical registration in Lithuania, and allocates time for a Lithuanian psychiatrist to prescribe medication, as Ukrainian doctors in Lithuania are not allowed to do so according to EU regulations.
