Mental health: some veterans are still embarrassed to seek help

Mental health: some veterans are still embarrassed to seek help

Kyiv  •  UNN

September 17 2024, 07:11 AM  •  120951 views

A Veterans' Center was opened in Brovary, where war veterans and their families can receive psychological support. Some veterans are embarrassed to seek help, but the center is working to overcome this barrier.

Not only the participants of the Russian war need to restore their mental health, but also their family members and family members of the deceased. But some veterans are to some extent embarrassed to seek help. Tetiana Hordiienko, project manager of the Brovary City Veterans Center, spoke about this in a commentary to UNN.

According to her, the veterans' hub in the Brovary community has been operating for less than a month, and the work in all areas, including psychological assistance, is only gaining momentum.

During this time, 113 defenders of Ukraine have visited our hub. They also seek psychological help. A psychologist conducts individual conversations with them. The same assistance is provided to the children of veterans and those who died, because mental health is important not only for the veteran, but for the whole family. When someone is at war, the whole family is at war, and this affects everyone's moral and mental health,

- noted Tetiana Gordienko.

The head of the Veterans' Hub in Brovary emphasizes that it is important for participants in the Russian-Ukrainian war to support their families at this time.

"Veterans are not used to this, they are shy to come. Sometimes it happens that they even come to the hub with their wives just to meet us, because they are very interested in what we do.

We assume that the hub should not only resolve some issues related to government agencies, but also, in terms of mental health support, hold various events not only for the military but also for their families, and provide them with their own space for their initiatives.

We pay considerable attention to working with military children. In particular, we recently created a joint wish list with the children. We had stickers and a wish list, and each child chose the sticker that he or she thought was most needed right now. For some, it was, for example, a house that was destroyed, for others, the hugs of their relatives, for others, a pet, for others, waiting for loved ones to come back from the war. That's why we made such a joint letter with the hope that in the near future it will be put into action, into life," added Tatyana Gordienko.

Recall

On August 22, Brovary opened a city veterans' center, where veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war, family members of the dead and prisoners of war, and active military personnel can, among other things, receive advice on paperwork, employment or starting their own business, address issues of medical care and psychological rehabilitation, etc.

Brovary Mayor Ihor Sapozhko commented to UNN that the city council has a clear understanding that veterans' policy is, in fact, a key area of its activity.

Currently, there are up to two thousand veterans in our community, 278 of whom are people with disabilities. And no matter how much we want it, the number of these people will unfortunately grow as the war continues. They need psychological and physical rehabilitation, and some need help with work and housing. We face these issues here on the ground every day. And, of course, in order to solve them, we need to have relevant government programs in place and adequate funding. For our part, we also allocate certain funds to support veterans and simplify the procedures for solving urgent issues. After all, these people defended our land with arms in their hands, and they should be given due respect,

- said Ihor Sapozhko.