Suitcase of resilience: how activists from affected communities can support mental health during the war

Publication date: February 14, 2024

Author: Oksana Ryabchun, communications manager of the Legal Development Network

In January 2024, the Legal Development Network (hereinafter referred to as LDN) conducted a training on “Resilience in Times of War” for activists, representatives of local governments of communities in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts. As a result, the participants gained and rethought their skills of self-help and support of others in stressful situations.

This is an initiative implemented by the Legal Development Network (LDN) in cooperation with the Czech humanitarian organization People in Need and with the financial support of the UK government, aimed at strengthening the capacity of local governments, volunteer groups and local activists to respond to the challenges of a full-scale war, coordinate and increase the effectiveness of humanitarian response in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts.

“We build our lives on three pillars: as individuals, as part of a team, and as part of the environment in which we live. That is why it is important to support ourselves in order to exist effectively in all three dimensions,” said Olha Nastina, Executive Director of the LDN.

Most of the communities from which the participants came are under fire. It is extremely important for them to recover in a safe environment and find resources for further work. Local activists and representatives of local governments are constantly communicating and providing aid to vulnerable populations. During the training, they received tools that can help them cope with crises.

“How are you?”

Mental health is an important component of overall health, emphasized trainer and psychotherapist Svitlana Savchuk during the training. It includes the ability to effectively cope with stress, realize one’s potential, work productively, and contribute to the community (World Health Organization definition). Each of these components can be assessed on a 10-point scale, and thus determine the state at the moment and subsequently mark changes in all four components to identify pain points that need to be addressed in a timely manner.

According to Svitlana Savchuk, it is important for leaders of organizations and communities to take care of their mental well-being in times of crisis, as they are responsible for maintaining the well-being of all residents. The example of these people can also become an important role model, when opinion leaders in the community become those who stay in good mental shape. Constant contact with others and providing assistance can lead to burnout, and there is a risk that one’s own resources will be exhausted. Such situations can be demotivating, so it is important to prepare yourself psychologically for the fact that help will not always be appreciated.

“It’s important to talk openly about the need for psychological assistance in communities and organize it systematically,” says Svitlana Savchuk. “We can balance the instability of today’s external world by building resilience, working with our emotions and states. We should periodically ask ourselves and others “how are you?” so that self-diagnosis becomes a good habit“.

For reference:

Resilience or vitality is the ability of a person to withstand and recover from stress, difficulties or challenges, while maintaining their integrity and functionality. Its five components are: physical resilience (health, physical strength), emotional resilience (ability to regulate emotions, ability to cope with stress), social resilience (supportive relationships with other people, ability to interact effectively with others), psychological resilience (mental strength and flexibility that allows you to withstand difficulties, recover from setbacks), spiritual resilience (inner strength to see the meaning in life, feel motivated during trials).

What helps maintain mental health:

• Awareness of burnout markers, stress factors, mental disorders, and signs of trauma – such psychoeducation can reduce anxiety;
• self-awareness, self-analysis of mental health;
• attentiveness to colleagues, team screening;
• self-care and an action plan for the team.

To quickly improve stress resistance, regulate mood, and calm down, there are useful applications that can be downloaded to a mobile smartphone and used in critical moments and in everyday life. In particular, you can indicate your emotions and receive recommendations to practice meditation, do appropriate breathing exercises, choose a music composition to cope with a crisis, and relax. Among these mobile applications: Svitlo, BeAlive, Safe Place, База, Breathe.

Resilience is developed as a skill that can be trained, emphasized Svitlana Savchuk. As a result, a person becomes like a ball that regains its shape after being hit. It is important to have additional supports, and for this purpose, the participants chose tools for their own “suitcase of resilience”. These include breathing exercises, diagnostics using the psychological health scale, words of self-support, grounding and body work, nature walks, physical exercises, muscle stretching, success stories, music breaks, rhythms, tracking and analyzing emotions, and working with mobile apps to calm and recover.

What did you pack in your resilience suitcase?

Summarizing their participation in the training, the participants noted that in a safe environment they were able to tune in to gain useful knowledge on how to support themselves and positively impact their team and community.

During the class, Hanna Shostak-Kuchmiak, head of the Vysokopilska community in Kherson oblast, recalled the words “take care of yourself” from a young man from the village who volunteered to guard her during the occupation when the village council guards left their post. Since then, she has been saying this phrase to herself in difficult situations, which demonstrates the importance of such a self-help tool as “words of self-support.”

“As a village head, people come to me constantly with various questions, problems, and emotions. I don’t have time to analyze them, but it’s very necessary, because they will come again with similar situations, and you need to be prepared. That’s why I would single out a tool for self-analysis,” explains Hanna Shostak-Kuchmiak. “It’s important to understand that you need to protect yourself, because there are a lot of negative emotions. It is especially difficult when you have to participate in a funeral and give a speech. Or you come to a certain community, and 200 people are waiting for you, who want very quick help and rescue. You have to think about the approach to calm them down, to explain everything calmly.”

Viktoriia Rogova, head of the education department of the Vysokopillia community, uses certain regular actions every day to help her start the day with a positive attitude. During the training, the woman realized that she needed to analyze her condition more deeply.

“Self-analysis should be done every evening: what I have done, what I can change, why it happened. The main thing is to see the problem and start working on it,” says Victoria Rogova. “My family is behind me, and I protect them from negative emotions. I regularly reboot myself, get rid of unnecessary things. Repetitive actions, such as morning coffee and music, help me to do this and set my mood for the whole day.”

According to Olha Kartashova, a consultant on socio-political issues at the 10 April NGO, understanding one’s place on the mental health continuum is key to correctly identifying the need for psychological support.

“You need to use self-diagnostic tools to determine exactly where you are on the line of mental health and disorders. This will allow you to correctly identify when it’s time to see a psychologist. You don’t always realize in the moment that you already need the help of a specialist. This is the place to start, and everything else will be auxiliary,” says Olga Kartashova. – “We also need growth stories. For example, stories of Irpin’s reconstruction won’t work here, we need stories from the Kherson oblast, when someone took responsibility and realized an idea, a dream, a project.”

The reboot will allow the team to gain strength and continue to rebuild the community, said Oleh Pylypenko, head of the Shevchenkove community in Mykolaiv oblast.

“The front line is close by, and every day we face the fact that we need to eliminate the consequences of the fighting, people often want everything at once, and the reconstruction process is not as fast as we would like. Not everyone understands this, and sometimes they come to the village council just to vent,” says Oleh Pylypenko. “We need tools to be constantly on the go. The war has affected everyone, including the team members – someone’s husband died, or one of their children is fighting. Of course, there is burnout… We have a recovery team, and it’s good that most of them are present at the training. It is very important that the people who make these changes have resources.”

A good coach should be aware of the players’ problems, says Valeriy Lishchuk, deputy head of the Pervomaiske community, as this affects the team’s performance.

“The knowledge gained allows us to understand ourselves, to see the signs of burnout in people around us,” says Valeriy Lishchuk, “Administrative staff often work as a lightning rod in communities. During the training, we shared our experience. Now we can ask for professional advice, because we have to control our emotions in order to listen, redirect and avoid getting involved in conflicts.”

“Remember to take care of yourself so that your inner strength shines and is passed on to others, so that you can be a Jedi in the current circumstances,” she wished the participants.

Some universal tips for maintaining mental health during the war:

• Keep in touch with loved ones, talk to them about your emotions and get support from them;
• take care of yourself – monitor your diet, sleep quality and exercise;
• find a way to relax and recover, it can be something as simple as a walk in the fresh air or listening to music;
• if you feel you cannot cope with your emotions, seek professional help.

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