A three-day training on burnout prevention and assistance to veterans and their families took place in Kyiv. It was organized for specialists from medical institutions in pilot communities in Volyn, Poltava, and Chernivtsi regions as part of the project «Multisectoral Humanitarian Assistance with Disability» implemented by the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine with the support of the German Foreign Office, CBM, and the European Disability Forum (EDF).
You could already get acquainted with the training program in previous posts on the website and Facebook page of the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine.
And today we are ready to share the feedback from the participants!
“I am very pleased with this training. It was especially important for me to learn more about psychological support for the military. About how to talk to their families,” says Yulia Poshyvaylo, a family doctor at the Opishnya Primary Healthcare Center. “We received useful tools for expressing suppressed emotions, which we, as doctors, and our patients have a lot of now,” adds Natalia Zvenyhorodska, a family doctor and colleague of Yulia's.
“During the training, we paid a lot of attention to how to talk to veterans, IDPs and former prisoners of war. And we have a lot of such patients now. In addition, our trainer, military psychologist Maryna Pryschepa, has many years of experience and gave practical examples,” says Valentyna Bazhan, clinical psychologist and art therapist at the Volyn Regional Psychological Hospital in Lutsk. “I especially noted the Jacobson relaxation technique. If we suppress, do not realize, or live with an emotion for a long time, then chronic muscle tension occurs, which maintains the same emotion. So the exercise is to tense each muscle as much as possible for a few seconds, and then concentrate on the feeling of relaxation that has arisen in it for twenty seconds. It is important to first learn to recognize the feeling of tension, and then to distinguish the feeling of relaxation from it. I will use this technique in my work with patients. It is a quick and very effective exercise.”
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Olena Sobchuk, a clinical psychologist at the Volyn Oblast Psychiatric Hospital in Lutsk, notes the particular importance of the issue of burnout among healthcare workers, “I understand that today it is very important to work with doctors to support their internal resources. That is why the issue of burnout was an acute and important one for me personally. Today, many military personnel are admitted to hospitals. Medical staff should know how to adapt to such patients. And how to work with them and their families without burning out. Many of the exercises were very resource-based. And today, finding a resource is very important for support. We worked through each technique on ourselves, felt how it affects our condition. And now I can use them with my patients.”.
Upon completion of the training, participants received certificates of completion.
We hope that the practical knowledge and skills gained will be useful in the work of healthcare workers in our pilot communities. We are grateful to our trainer Maryna Pryschepa and each participant for the supportive and friendly atmosphere and exchange of experience during the training!
