Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Working Group

Meeting minutes Kyiv, January 13, 2015

The MHPSS sub-cluster meeting was chaired by WHO and took place in the WHO office.

Present were: Natalia Monakhova, WHO Gabrielle Akimova, UNICEF Margriet Blaauw, IMC / IASC RG MHPSS (IMC) Oksana Basenko, NaUKMA Mariia Bialaia, NGO USOCTE Elena Aleynikova, Charitable Foundation Save Ukraine (SU) Tatiana Kotnieva, YMCA Ukraine (YMCA) Viktor Serbulov, YMCA Ukraine (YMCA) Dina Gud, Danish Refugee Council (DRC) Keven Bernudez, TDH Ukraine

The issues to be discussed included: 1. Updates from the WHO. 2. Updates from the partners. 3. Agenda for the upcoming WG meetings 4. AOB.

Meeting highlights

1. Updates from the WHO WHO: - Health Sector was transformed into Health Cluster which means strengthening the exiting sector coordination mechanisms and emphasis on the effective partnerships and joint strategic planning among national and international actors in the health sector. - 10-day training for MEPUs has started this Monday. The MEPUs are expected to begin working in the field immediately after the training. MH and GBV are important topics that will be covered both in the training and in the field work of the MEPUs.

2. Updates from the partners IMC: Currently IMC is conducting assessments of the MH and PSS gaps and needs. It is also planned to carry out GBV and Health assessment in future. IMC will appreciate input of the WG regarding these issues. (Update on dates/places to be provided later.)

UNICEF: Recently the Community Prevention Centers (CPC) project has started (see Appendix 1 for a description). At the present moment there are 12 CPC (4 in Kharkiv and Izum, 1 – Svyatohorsk, 2 – Berdyansk, 1 – Kryvyi Rih). They are based on the UNICEF concept of child-friendly spaces but are the actual community centers aimed at building the communities and self-help skills of IDPs. UNICEF is also looking into possibility to open CPC in the conflict-affected area (in Antratsyt).

YMCA: has been working in Ukraine since 1993 and now have 23 branch offices functioning throughout the country, including the ATO area (there are two organizations functioning there, one in Antratsyt, the other in Krasnyi Luch). YMCA offers the Don’t Laugh at Me! project, developed in the US and approved by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, to Ukrainian schools to prevent bullying and to support integration of displaced children in the Ukrainian schools.

NaUKMA: The project jointly implemented with UNICEF since November 2014 (till April 2015) aims at minimizing the psychosocial impacts of and levels of psychological distress experienced by children and families affected by the crisis in Eastern Ukraine and enabling long-term accessibility of psychosocial support for children and families. The project has three core parts: 1) Training program for school psychologists and social workers (target: 400) to provide psychological crisis counselling for children and families; 2) Providing immediate crisis psychosocial support to children and their caregivers (target: 3000) in the affected areas from the conflict of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts; 3) Advocacy for the training program to be integrated into continued learning curriculum of Ministries of Education and Social Policy as well as higher education programs. For the moment, project has a positive feedback from beneficiaries (psychologists and families) enabling them to gain needed skills and support.

UCOSTE: Now is implementing a project to provide short-term rehabilitation services to combatants and is working on the establishment of the Rehabilitation Center for combatants and their families.

TDH Ukraine: Is the Swiss organizations working in child protection just arriving to Kyiv and is meeting with the partners to learn about the urgent needs and what TDH Ukraine can offer to strengthen response to the situation. The key concern of the organization is children and families. We perceive families as an important supportive link for children; thus children who have lost their families are most at risk. Therefore the task is to help building protective environment for such children and we can offer our support to the organizations working in this area.

DRC: Beginning with November DRC is implementing project to support most vulnerable IDP families (financial support, UAH 4500 per household, one-time aid, and winterization) in Dnipropetrivsk (750 households), Zaporizhzhia (750 households) and Donetsk (500 households) regions. It is planned to launch similar project at the end of January in Mariupol. Currently DRC is developing a project on protection of children’s rights and PSS, together with other organizations.

3. Agenda for the upcoming WG meetings UNICEF: Was approached by a commercial organization AdPro who is ready to launch a psychoeducational campaign targeting IDP (children and their parents). They plan to start the campaign in internet and on billboards and then move to TV and movie theaters. It is possible to invite them to the WG meeting to present their work and to receive professional comments from the WG. This could be the beginning of work with mass media.

Another idea UNICEF would like to bring to the attention of the WG, previously discussed with WHO, is establishing a supervisory board or working group to ensure that all WG partners are consistent in the standards and quality of the trainings in MHPSS offered to the stakeholders. Such supervisory board will make it possible to later develop the training module, for instance, for school psychologists on the base of the accumulated experience. Then it will be possible to discuss a possibility to include this training module in the university curriculum for psychologists.

DRC: - It is important to understand whether there is a possibility to jointly apply for project financing and to plan joint projects. - DRC agrees with UNICEF regarding a need to standardize approaches to trainings in MH and PSS. We can begin by sharing information about the current trainings offered by the partners. - WG needs indeed to begin working with trusted mass media, first, building their knowledge and skills in handling information about trauma, which they publicize, carefully, not to retraumatize affected population and, second, involving them in the larger-scale psychoeducation campaign.

SU: The staff, working at the hotline, reports that IDPs feel abandoned and lost, that no organizations are really interested in them. Volunteers who work with IDPs often feel same way. Also, there is a fear to seek psychological/psychiatric assistance.

DRC: There is also a need to discuss the needs of volunteers and how we can respond to them as partners.

USOCTE: Psychoeducational campaign can help reducing stigma of psychological/psychiatric aid and raise awareness to a need to seek such aid.

WHO: Working as partners the Group will be able to build networks and fill in the gaps thus providing well-targeted assistance, where it is needed.

YMCA: - For YMCA, a topic of violence against children is important. - To understand better how we can work together and what activities to plan, it is necessary to understand exactly what is expertise/projects of each organization. It would be good if everybody shared such information.

WHO: It is necessary to review again the WG SRP drafted in 2014 (Appendix 4) and to begin planning joint activities in accordance with the existing needs and gaps.

4. AOB DRC: Is looking for a opportunity to begin working in the conflict area. It is important to find out how the WG can gain access to the conflict area, maybe it is necessary to cooperate with local authorities there.

WHO: The UN agencies have set up an office in the conflict area, in Donetsk city. In the nearest future, there will be a WHO field coordinator working there. Besides, it is possible to work with the international partners who have a mandate to enter the military conflict areas and who are present in Ukraine, such as MSF, IMC and ICRC.

YMCA: Has the training programs for school children in LNR and DNR on land mines and PSS. To introduce them, YMCA had to seek permission from the local Departments for Education.

WHO: It is important to begin collecting 3Ws for MH and PSS (Appendices 2 and 3). Please review the final drafts of the 3Ws by Tuesday, January 20. Then the WG can begin collecting information about MHPSS activities by the next meeting.

Next meeting: Tuesday, December 23, 2014, 16:00-18:00

Follow-up - WHO to share information about possibility of joint project financing – during the next meeting. - WG to provide information to IMC regarding the most urgent MHPSS gaps and needs – via WHO, by Monday, January 19, 2015. - WG members to share short organizational profiles and short description of their programs – through WHO, by the next meeting. - WHO to revise 3Ws in accordance with the IASC 4Ws Manual (Appendix 5) and to send it out to the WG members for final revision – ASAP. - WHO and NaUKMA/UNICEF to make presentation about the trainings offered in their programs – during the next meeting. - WHO to send out 2015 SRP.