The international charitable organization Parimatch Foundation, together with the Israeli trauma coalition, conducted a training course for the Inclusive Resource Center psychologists of the Lviv Region specializing in «Psychological Support in Crisis». The project was implemented with the support of the Department of Education and Science of the Lviv Regional Military Administration.
49 IRC psychologists received access to the training course. The educational course lasted 12 academic hours and consisted of theoretical lectures and practical tasks. After completing the training, all participants have been awarded a certificate of attendance and they will be able to work with internally displaced persons, both adults, and children, using new methods and help more effectively.
It should be noted that the training course «Psychological Support in Crisis» was extremely popular and timely in the Lviv region since it became one of the key Ukrainian regions that provided shelter to internally displaced persons who had to leave their homes due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to general estimates, since the beginning of the war, Lviv and the Lviv region have sheltered about 450-500 thousand people. Over 1,000 children and 900 adults from Donetsk, Poltava, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhya, Chernihiv, Sumy, etc. regions could get the psychological support and pedagogical training in the Inclusive resource centers of the Lviv region used as mental help centers for both IDPs and locals. In this difficult time, IRC specialists provide classes for children, individual psychological consultations for parents, work as volunteers at train stations and continue to help everyone who needs it 24/7.
Maria Vasyunyk, the chief specialist of the Department of Education and Science of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, is sure that thanks to the knowledge acquired after finishing the course the ICR psychologists will not only facilitate the psychological rehabilitation of their patients but will be able to prevent personal burnout.
The Department of Education and Science of the Lviv Regional Military Administration expresses its gratitude to the Parimatch Foundation and the Israeli Trauma Coalition for organizing a training course specializing in psychological support for practical psychologists in inclusive resource centers of the Lviv region. This training course is timely. Some time ago we had a meeting with the directors of the IRC and discussed the necessity of conducting courses related to mental health assistance to children and adults with traumas, acute stress, and other conditions caused by the war. We had that request from practical psychologists and then … our request was unexpectedly satisfied, in fact, with an initiative of the International Charitable organization Parimatch Foundation representatives, who visited the department of education and science of the Lviv Regional Military Administration. In a very short time, we formed groups and started training. All course participants had great satisfaction from the learning process and aspire to take courses in other specializations. This knowledge will help IRC specialists to improve their skills in providing psychological first aid, and to be more adaptive and versatile in their approach to patients, – she said.
It is to be recalled, that the training course was initiated as part of the Parimatch Foundation’s psychological rehabilitation strategic program for children and adults affected by the war. The Foundation aims to train as many IRC professionals as possible in the regions with the highest number of internally displaced persons. The pilot project started in the Ternopil region, where 30 psychologists from Inclusive Resource Centers have been already working with IDPs. Specialists from the Ivano-Frankivsk region also have already started the training course.
