Marta Pyvovarenko, the project's main supervisor, talks about the importance of supervisory support for psychologists working on the hotline of psychological support. She is a leading expert in the field of post-traumatic stress and an advocate for emergency assistance issues at the NGO "Self-Help Communities." During the project, which started at the beginning of June, my supervisory work began almost from the very beginning. The hotline received a significant number of complex requests, especially from family members of the disappeared.
Supervisory support provides psychologists with confidence in their work, allowing them to effectively provide psychological support and assistance. This is particularly important as the topic of disappearances and post-traumatic stress is very sensitive, and the situation in the country is extremely complex due to military actions and other conflicts.
Psychologists working on the hotline face heavy workloads and high levels of violence and stress. Supervisory support helps them maintain emotional balance and preserve the internal resources necessary for productive work. It is important for psychologists to have the opportunity to receive professional support so that each time they provide assistance, they are effective and achieve results.
Although the hotline format does not involve long-term client support, it is important for those who use it to receive psychological support and assistance whenever needed.
Supervisory meetings are emotional, informational support, and a form of professional development for experts. The work of psychotherapists should take place under supervisory support. This provides an opportunity to receive emotional and informational support from the supervisor and colleagues, and promotes the professional development of the psychotherapist. Then the professional competencies of experts grow, and their psycho-emotional state remains stable - they do not burn out. In Ukraine, we widely popularize this tool as one that has proven its effectiveness and efficiency worldwide. And now many funds understand that supervision is needed, but national and international partners who finance similar projects do not always understand what "supervision" is and what it includes.
For the psychologists of our hotline, supervisory meetings are part of their professional work. We have both individual and group supervisions. Group sessions are always intimate and in a small group, allowing each expert to discuss their cases and ensure that their work direction is correct.
Terrible things happen to the best people.
Yes, there was a case when one of the psychologists approached me for supervision: in a fairly short period of time working on the hotline, she encountered three difficult, similar cases of working with women - mothers who had lost their sons. In one of these women, it was her only son, who was a completely positive person. He didn't drink, never smoked, always treated people well - "the pride of the nation." He couldn't stand aside when full-scale military invasion began. When parents do everything to raise their children to be good, decent, the best... There is dissonance and misunderstanding about why their children deserved the terrible fate that happened to them.
Of course, it's not easy. The world is unjust. Even when we only do good or even the best things in life, it does not protect us from the worst developments. War does not choose. And it's scary. It's hard to accept this. There is a lot of anxiety, no opportunity to control anything, no sense of security. Those who work on the hotline also feel this "human injustice." We had a whole session and worked with cognitive-behavioral therapy tools that allow us to overcome "stuck points."
This project is a response to the urgent demands of society.
At the time the team was preparing and writing this project, there was no hotline in the country that could meet such societal demands. Requests were coming in, particularly from the Office of the President, around the time when information began to emerge about the first civilians who disappeared without a trace, their numbers, how they were treated, and information about their torture. An organization formerly known as "Euromaidan SOS" also approached us with similar requests. Now it is the "Center for Civil Liberties" (CCL), which has been documenting crimes against humanity since 2014. They have now united with other human rights organizations, including the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, to work on a single platform. Thousands of people contact them seeking their missing loved ones. Thanks to their crucial work, the CCL was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2022.
Their request to us was like the final piece in the puzzle for deciding to create this hotline. Currently, our partners, the Center for Civil Liberties and "Tell Me," a resource that has long worked with the Ministry of Health, are the main sources from which people learn about this hotline. So, our hotline already has something to be proud of - this conglomerate provides quality contact with people who have lost someone. We have the opportunity to help in this difficult but very important work.
This topic is very delicate and sensitive. There are many groups on the Internet that supposedly help relatives in searching for missing persons. However, quite often, this is not good for the missing individuals themselves. When relatives aggressively publicize information that one of their family members is in captivity, it often worsens the situation for the person who is actually in captivity. The abundance of information and the perception that someone needs them, or that the world needs them, only increases the "value" of these individuals. However, it can also lead to even worse treatment, which is always a risk associated with death.
The rules are changing rapidly now, and it's important to know them primarily for the safety of the captives themselves. For example, a similar action in support of Sentsov, #SaveOlegSentsov, as I mentioned earlier, may only worsen the situation for the person in captivity. It is also important to note that the aggressor state has created a number of organizations that are now trying to communicate with the relatives of the missing. The sole purpose of these organizations is to obtain ransom. This is somewhat similar to what happened in Grozny: convincing relatives that they can ransom their loved ones, even if they may no longer be alive. Previously, such cases were isolated and in limited locations. Now there are an extremely large number of these cases.
Therefore, this hotline is extremely important. I hope it will continue to be able to provide this vulnerable group of people with the right procedures to maximize the safety and health of those in captivity.
The hotline was created within the project to provide psychological assistance implemented by the International Confederation for Combating Corruption, Organized Crime, and Terrorism (ICCCOCT) in partnership with the Self-Help Communities NGO with the support of the UN Development Program under the UN Peacebuilding and Recovery Program with financial support from the European Union.
The views, recommendations, and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of UNDP, the UN, the European Union, and/or other international partners.
The UN Peacebuilding and Recovery Program (UN RPP) is implemented by four UN agencies: the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The program is supported by eleven international partners: the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the US Embassy in Ukraine, as well as the governments of Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan.
