How the War in Ukraine is Impacting Mental Health of Civilians

Nastya was sitting in a cafe near the train station, which had been hit by a missile the year before and killed many people. Suddenly her neighborhood had been bombed again and, feeling exhausted, she tried to calm herself by taking deep breaths.

Nastya, a 20-year-old woman, had gone to the psychiatric hospital near her house that day because her parents told her to. The hospital was damaged during a war; it got bombed multiple times last September and even though a missile destroyed part of the building, there were still people trying to help those in need by cleaning and working at the hospital. For Nastya, this became her lifesaver.

The speech therapy student said last month that after the shelling she couldn’t take it anymore, feeling scared all the time. Even though there was a stigma in the Soviet-era when people would get put in psychiatric institutions as punishment, she knew her mental health mattered more and decided to seek help anyway.

In Ukraine, there are a lot of people like Nastya who need psychological help. Even if the war stops, more and more people in Ukraine will need help with their mental health. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that 1 out of 5 people living in conflict zones over the past 10 years have experienced mental health issues. WHO also said nearly 10 million Ukrainians may be affected by this.

In February 2022, Russia invaded and caused millions of people to lose their homes, lose loved ones, be forced into basement shelters to hide from the bombardment, and suffer terrible journeys away from Russian-controlled areas.

For Nastya and many others like her, this war changed everything in an instant. One minute they were enjoying simple pleasures with friends, the next life was so different it felt like it belonged to someone else.

When you wake up, all you feel is fear. You’re afraid of the loud noises of war around you – air raid sirens, airplanes and helicopters. The happy times before have been replaced with a feeling of being stuck in an endless cycle of dread and terror.

Tatyana, who is 38 and works at a nuclear plant called Zaporizhzhia in the west, saw bombs exploding near her work a few months ago when the town she was living in (called Enerhodar) was under Russian occupation. Her family spent 24 hours trying to escape to an area that was controlled by Ukraine instead. Tatyana was really scared during this time.

When Tatyana visited a support center in Boyarka, south of Kyiv, a few months ago to get help, she started crying uncontrollably. The staff called for a psychologist to help her.

Talking about her feelings with the therapist has been helping her to cope with the pressure of living in a war-zone. During our conversation last week, she looked unfocused at times. She’s now trying hard to manage all these complex emotions every day.

“She said that it can be really scary when we suddenly realize that something bad could happen in a second and everything can disappear like a light switch being turned off and never turning on again.”

Experts are seeing more need for mental health support around Ukraine, not just because of the war, but also due to their own personal experiences.

Pavlo Horbenko, a psychotherapist working at a special center in Kyiv treating people affected by war since 2014 says that the need for help is growing. He noticed more requests from people who have been hurt from sexual violence, grieving or feeling suicidal—increasing from one or two requests a week to up to 10 every single day.

Horbenko said that based on other countries with wars, mental health help is in great need once the war stops. Right now, people are focused on simply surviving but after the hostilities end they’ll be able to take a break and all the feelings they have been bottling up while living through conflict will come out.

It’s like a soldier in battle, who doesn’t realize he’s hurt until he gets away from the danger. This is how psychological traumas work too – it takes time to feel the hurt.

There are more mental health experts in Ukraine now than there was in 2014, but there still aren’t enough to meet demand.

Officials are working hard to increase access to mental health services in Ukraine.

Dr. Maya Bizri, a Lebanese psychiatrist, recently travelled to Ukraine as part of a program sponsored by MedGlobal (a medical aid organization). The Ministry of Health asked Dr.Bizri to assess the needs there and provide training to doctors and nurses in how to detect mental health problems in both patients and their co-workers.

“MedGlobal program is helping health care workers to deal with mental stress,” said Bizri. “This program sets doctors and nurses up with support, so they will be mentally ok in order to help their fellow colleagues.”

Dr. Bizri said that we need to take care of our own people in order to have a good health care system. The Ministry of Health is very aware of this and has been trying to do something about it. Dr. Sevastianova from the Kramatorsk psychiatric hospital added that they are managing because of having mental health professionals with them.

Sevastianova, a doctor, knows the war is just as tough for doctors like her as it is for the patients – they are all worried about their loved ones. But she still wants to help out at the hospital and keep it open so that others can get medical care. She isn’t sure how bad things might be in the long run, but she wants to do her best to help out now.

Sevastianova said, “Sometimes bad things happen and they leave a mark with us. And this is kind of like that — when bad events take place, we have to do our best to keep going and also support others who are affected. We won’t really know the full impact of this until later.”

You can read more about what’s happening in Ukraine at https://bigbignews.net/russia-ukraine.