This grueling year has devastated the lives of millions of people, bringing psychological harm as significant as physical injury. We are preparing to expand our mental health interventions alongside cash, shelter, medical care and urgent assistance to help people manage the harsh winter with power cuts and water shortages.
The IFRC Membership in Europe is running its biggest mental health response in history as millions of men, women, and children struggle to cope with the anguish and stress of the crisis. It has exposed people to extremely distressing situations. Many have lost loved ones, their homes, and their jobs, and others have witnessed traumatic events.
Through the help of specialist IFRC staff and more than 124,000 volunteers from 58 Red Cross Red Crescent national societies from Ukraine, neighboring countries, and across Europe, more than one million people in need have been reached with psychosocial support.
The psychosocial support additionally included setting up child friendly spaces, ensuring the care of more than one million children.
See our Ukraine Response page for more information on the importance of ensuring a safe space for children and how to set them up.
We have been able to reach people in almost all regions of Ukraine. We are working in 20 out of 24 regions – including Kyiv – and still, we see the need for basic psychosocial support
In our latest Heartbeat of Humanity podcast, Anna and Bethan Mcevoy, MHPSS delegate for the Danish Red Cross in Ukraine, discuss a year of MHPSS response – for those who fled the conflict as well as to those who are internally displaced within Ukraine – and the MHPSS needs moving forward.
