Mar 20, 2022
The photograph accompanying this podcast is of Orest Suvalo, a volunteer and a psychiatrist in #Ukraine, speaks with patients at a medical point set up above Lviv Central Station.
A doctor and psychiatrist, Orest Suvalo, talks to Dr Raj Persaud about the mental health situation in Ukraine
From The Guardian Newspaper
Theatre workshops and art classes have sprung up to offer temporary respite from war as doctors warn of widespread trauma
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/15/ukraine-child-mental-health-crisis
Two days after Russian forces entered Ukraine, on 26 February, the country’s public military administration requested that a psychological support system be put in place at Lviv train station.
Thousands of women and children were passing through the station, 80km (50 miles) from the border with Poland, and the need for doctors and psychiatrists to support the displaced was immediately clear.
“The first week was very difficult,” says Dr Orest Suvalo, psychiatrist and coordinator of the support centre. “There were people arriving from Kyiv and Kharkiv who showed critical signs of distress. Many children, but also adults, were panicking, looking for shelters and buses to Poland.’’