In Kyiv participants from different regions studied the principles of providing psychological support in emergency settings

On April 3-5 in Kyiv, the trainers Iryna Tkach and Olena Sudakova helped 30 participants from different regions of Ukraine to study the basic principles of providing psychological support in emergencies and crises during the first part of the training-course.

According to one of the trainers, a clinical psychologist, trauma therapist Iryna Tkach, " the main task of the training was to enable participants to provide psychosocial assistance under complex conditions: sudden emergencies and crises, improving the skills and acquiring new ones."

The trainer added that the event was attended by various Ukrainian regions representatives. Iryna Tkach also noted that the trainers felt the group's engagement with acquiring knowledge and skills.

The trainer also noted that the impact of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine is observed in every Ukrainian region, so psychosocial assistance should be provided throughout the country, when necessary. Participants learned to work, inter alia, with internally displaced persons, as well as with demobilized combatants and their families.

According to the trainers, among the external challenges that arose during the event, they could determine the specific psychoemotional state of some participants, which affected the group dynamics during the first day. It is also noteworthy that the challenge was basically solved with the help of exercises and techniques for levelling the psychoemotional load.

During the training, 27 own support systems have been developed, participants managed to separate their own position and the position of their organization in the system of psychosocial support according to the basic principles of IASC Reference Group. Besides, the group got 35 techniques and exercises for working in the system of psychosocial support in emergencies and crises.

The trainers summarized, "One of the positive effects is the high level of organization of the event, which had a positive impact on the group dynamics, absorbing the material and high level of group members’ activity. Also a positive effect was the fact that the training was attended by the participants from different regions of the country, which significantly increased the effect on session of exchanging experiences between the participants and had a positive effect on the psychoemotional condition of the participants and the dynamics of the group as a whole.”

The training was implemented within the "Crisis prevention and Peace building in Ukraine – Time to Act!" project, supported with German Federal Foreign Office’s funds by IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Funding programme zivik.