From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Israel Trauma Coalition opening resilience centers in Ukraine
Renee Ghert-Zand is the health reporter and a feature writer for The Times of Israel.
The Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC) is cooperating with the Ukrainian government and others to establish resilience centers in several Ukrainian cities. The first center opened in April in Kyiv, with others planned for Odesa, Kharkiv, Ternopil, and Khmelnytskyi, close to the front lines.
In consultation with local Ukrainian leadership, ITC is adapting the highly effective Israeli resilience model of preparedness and response to the psychosocial aspects of war for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself from the Russian military invasion that began in February 2022.
According to statistics compiled by Reuters, at least 62,295 people have been killed, 59,244 have been injured, 15,000 people are missing, and 14 million have been displaced thus far.
Since the outbreak of the war, ITC has trained and supported more than 4,000 Ukrainian professionals on intervention and treatment for coping with trauma, loss, and grief among adults and children. Among those trained are clinicians, social workers, teachers, doctors, nurses, first responders, and others.
“The State of Israel has become a center of knowledge regarding mental health and mental well-being of individuals, families, and teams that are exposed to war-related trauma and terror. It is a professional and human privilege and responsibility to share what we have learned in Israel and around the world and be part of Ukraine’s effort to create a tailor-made system of response,” says ITC’s CEO Talia Levanon.
