2023-07-09 04:00:05
With trembling hands covering her mouth, the woman looked at the gaping hole in the side of a building, the contents of apartments strewn across the floor and tangled in the walls. Beside her was Ivanka Davydenko, 29, in a blue uniform with the word “psychologist” written in yellow on the front and back, her arm resting gently on her back.
He handed her a glass of water and asked how he could help. The lady’s son lived on the 18th floor, and he wasn’t answering the phone. Practically all the flooring there was gone. “We help people because they are in a state of shock, and we don’t always realize their needs at the moment. We offer simple things, water, coffee, a blanket,” he said.
Davydenko is part of a small team of the Public Emergency Service of Ukraine, which provides the first psychological assistance in times of crisis in Kiev. She arrived a few minutes after the attack, carried out in the early morning of 24 June; in fact, the national air defenses destroyed the enemy missiles, but in doing so, debris fell on the buildings.
Russia’s advances force emergency units to contend not only with fire, smoke and blood, but also with unpredictable psychological effects on people living through war. Public health experts already predict that millions will likely develop some sort of mental disorder caused by the invasion, a number that is only expected to increase as the bombings, violence and pain continue.
So the groups not only include firefighters, paramedics and police, but also psychologists like Davydenko, to help people deal with the immediate effects of shock or any other more pressing needs.
There are similar initiatives in other cities, but as enemies seem more insistent on striking terror in the capital, Kiev’s team is perhaps the busiest. “Before, we dealt with the most serious, large-scale emergencies, like gas explosions where there were a lot of people who needed to be evacuated in a hurry; after the war started, we were on standby the whole time, we didn’t even leave the city,” explained Liubov Kirnos, responsible for the Kiev unit.
Like other emergency workers, psychologists are on call, and when there is an attack, the coordination center hurriedly sends a detachment to the location, where they usually find people crying, in shock, unable to move, or in complete collapse. “The first thing is always to ask what the person needs and how they are feeling. Many just ask us to stay close by because they might be waiting for a family member to be pulled out of the rubble,” continued Kirnos.
This was the case of the mother to whom Davydenko offered support on June 24, accompanying her while she consulted the list of victims taken to hospitals and those who disappeared. However, as the two walked away, a fireman commented that there was nothing left of the 18th floor, where her son lived.
According to the psychologist, residents were sleeping when the impact opened the side of the building, before sunrise. “At least two bodies were thrown out, with pieces of twisted metal, insulation and fragments of furniture; it was all strewn across the parking lot. Dozens of people were standing there in shock, including some who had seen the corpses and others who had wounded but didn’t realize they were bleeding,” Davydenko said.
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Along with a colleague, she stayed there for about 12 hours, assisting 45 people — like 62-year-old Iryna Kuts, who came to her alongside her daughter, still shaking from shock, to ask for some water and a moment to talk. “We live on the 19th floor. I woke up suddenly, with the room full of smoke. We held each other, thinking we were going to suffocate.” In the end, they managed to get out and down the stairs, with the help of the police, and they were examining the rubble in shock.
Or the young woman in the white tank top who was milling around the parking lot, crying, who was referred to her. Her father lived there, had survived the shock, but refused to leave. “Stay calm, everything will be fine. But you can’t go in; no one can,” Davydenko told him, holding his arm, explaining that the firemen would get him out. And he waited until finally the man appeared, and the girl threw herself on him, sobbing.
Not everyone was as lucky. Hours later, Davydenko accompanied the mother and husband, who had gone looking for their son, when they had to examine the seriously mutilated remains of a body. The couple was still waiting for the official’s DNA confirmation, but the psychologist said the identity was almost certain. The following day, municipal authorities confirmed the deaths of five people in the clash.
Public health experts like Dr. Jarno Habicht, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Ukraine, warn of the widespread and lasting effects of war on mental health. In an interview, he stated that around ten million could develop some kind of disorder because of the Russian invasion.
Based on the analysis of the psychological effect of other conflicts, the institution calculates that the estimate should increase with the prolonging of the war. “The biggest concerns are disorders caused by stress, such as anxiety and depression. The most important thing here is not to wait to act only when the conflict is over”, he emphasized.
A number of programs have been set up to help the population, including the one led by the First Lady, Olena Zelenska, whose aim is to provide affordable, high-quality mental health services across the country.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Health, WHO and more than a dozen partners have started a project to train first responders to treat patients with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicidal behavior and substance abuse. substances.
The scheme of which the team of psychologists is part tries to offer an initial intervention in times of crisis. “If you don’t deal with stress right away, it can turn into a long-term problem, which in turn can lead to PTSD. Our goal is to make the person understand that the danger is past, that they are safe. is done on time, she may be trapped in a state of terror.”
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