World Mental Health Day: Rinat Akhmetov Foundation Helps Ukrainian Adults and Children Overcome the Trauma of War

According to WHO estimates, almost 10 million people in Ukraine are currently at risk of mental disorders. Understanding the scale of the problem, Rinat Akhmetov Foundation chose psychological support for people affected by the war as one of its key areas of activity from the first days of the war in 2014. During the full-scale aggression, this area was expanded and strengthened.

Today is World Mental Health Day, which aims to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilise efforts to support it. For Ukrainians who live through the war every day, this topic is especially relevant.

Key areas of assistance implemented by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation:
- Group lectures by mobile groups of psychologists from Rinat Akhmetov Foundation travelling across Ukraine to provide psychological help and practical self-help tools to residents of the frontline territories, displaced people from hot spots, high school students and college freshmen, as well as people who are under increased psychological and emotional stress during the war due to their professional activities, namely doctors, teachers, social workers, etc;
- Psychological support to adults and children affected by the hostilities, who have been injured and traumatised and are undergoing physical and psychological rehabilitation in a health resort provided by the Foundation as part of the Rehabilitation of Wounded Children and Treatment and Rehabilitation of Wounded Adults projects;
- Psychological support for children anxious about war events in the Blogger Camp children's camp; including critical first aid for children who were illegally taken to Russia and managed to return to Ukraine as part of the Peaceful Summer project for Ukrainian children;
- Videos and webinars from the Foundation's psychologists, who explain the mechanism of war trauma formation using real-life stories, give practical advice on preventing further traumatisation and tell how to overcome difficult psycho-emotional states during the war, as part of the Civilians Voices. War Trauma project;
- Psychological, motivational and supportive projects for children and youth of Ukraine implemented by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation all year round as part of Rinat Akhmetov to Children programme;
- Essential psychological assistance to people after hostile attacks on residential areas of Ukrainian settlements;

- A therapeutic opportunity to tell people the stories about your experiences during the war, reflect on it, and read and listen to the stories of other Ukrainians at the Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation (https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/) This is the world's largest collection of stories of Ukrainian civilians about the war, containing more than 120,000 first-hand accounts.

It is worth paying attention to the special pages with practical information and advice created by the Foundation to help Ukrainians during the war. These include:
- The Museum's section ‘Civilian Voices. War Trauma: https://bit.ly/3UuKYoA
- YouTube channel of the Foundation (https://www.youtube.com/@Akhmetovfoundation).

More than 1,075,000 people in Ukraine have already received psychological assistance from the Foundation during the war. For this purpose, Rinat Akhmetov Foundation trained 250 psychologists in the War Trauma course.