Can someone who has not fought understand military?

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

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

Andr Fomenko

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

Andr Fomenko, deputy director of the Center-Veteran, a crisis psychogist, says that pele 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 psychogical assistance can also be sent from communities if they cannot process them for some reason," says the psychogist.

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

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

– If you have been feeling depressed for about three weeks, it is better to see a psychogist. This can be a manifestation of, for example, subdepression. Pay attention to sleep disturbances, eating disorders, or perhaps outbursts of aggression towards pele 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 viation 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 psychogist's competence, the person is referred to another specialist: a neurogist, psychiatrist, etc. The Veteran Center strives to devel such a multidisciplinary team.

"CRISIS COUNSELOR" – A COURSE FOR EVERYONE

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

– This course is largely a manifestation of concern for the psychogical awareness of our society. So that pele can provide prompt assistance, including psychogical help, to those who are going through crisis moments. The course is attended not only by pele with psychogical education. These are also bereaved family members, vunteers, medical workers, pice officers and other law enforcement agencies, and generally those invved in civil-military coeration. 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 prerly direct them, where to recommend them," says Fomenko.

The psychogist 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, pele misuse this name. In particular, there is a perception that pele with PTSD are aggressive, walk around with grenades, etc. But these are myths, and someone has to debunk them. We need to understand that pele just need our help," emphasizes Fomenko.

The third block of the Crisis Counselor course teaches how to work with a bereaved person. The tic of death is always difficult, so it is very important to take the right actions towards such pele, the psychogist 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 en up to a person who is experiencing difficult emotions. As my cleague Vlad Zubchenko says, sometimes in order to help a person, you need to be able to ask for help," says Andr Fomenko.

More than 100 pele 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 clected feedback from those who had completed the Crisis Counselor course. They realized that the information is needed, pele know what to do with it. So they offered us coeration, which is ongoing," says the psychogist.

"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 Andr Fomenko.

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

– There are 49 psychogical hubs in the region, and our cleagues are everywhere. I do not form groups for training, but I invite and integrate my cleagues into them if I see their willingness to work with a particular category of pele 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 Onikevo, Pomichna, and Haivoron for short-term meetings, but this is exclusively a vunteer activity of the Center-Veteran," the psychogist says.

The "Crisis Counselor" course is currently in its ninth enrlment. According to Andr Fomenko, the center's immediate plans include ening a scho of extreme crisis psychogy. It should start in January and will be en exclusively for specialists: doctors, psychogists and others.

"YOU SHOULD OVERCOME YOUR FEARS AND ASK FOR HELP"

eksandr, 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 sdier. He has some problems, but he is too embarrassed to go to psychogists. We talked, and I td him that I could not help him, because I am not a psychogist. But I know some specialists whom I can recommend. But many military men have an inion that if a psychogist 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 Andr Fomenko, he invited me. We discussed similar fears and other prejudices, especially requests from the military," the veteran says.

eksandr says that he does not provide direct assistance to the military, but now he knows how to refer them to psychogists. By the way, he met them during the course. The veteran notes that he has begun to better understand how psychogists 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 pele who need help turn to me now, I will be able to provide them with some kind of first aid, pre-psychogical help," eksandr notes.

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

– Even to the regular ones that are available in hospitals. "Regardless of whether these psychogists fought or not, they still have experience and practice," says eksandr. "So it makes no difference whether a psychogist 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 pele are helped by their families and do not need to see a psychogist, 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, Kryvnytskyi

Photo: Facebook/Andr Fomenko