The Patriarchal Foundation Mudra Sprava joined the celebration of Mental Health Day in Berdychiv

As part of the celebration of the International Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10, each year, Caritas Berdychiv, with the support of the Patriarchal Foundation Mudra Sprava, organised a social wardrobe for people in need, internally displaced persons and war-affected people.

Preparations for and the celebration of the Mental Health Day at the Resilience Centre of the Berdychiv City Council were filled with vivid emotions and numerous activities.

The centre’s staff must be ambassadors of resources and resilience to be professionals who can teach community members mental health skills. To this end, the centre’s psychologists took part in a supervisory meeting with crisis psychologist and therapist Oksana Trybun.

On the same day, a series of ‘Self-Help+’ trainings was launched, which will continue through October 2024 with specialists from the Department of Family and Social Protection of the Berdychiv City Territorial Community. During the trainings, the employees of the department will be able to gain resources, develop self-help skills, develop a sense of inner balance and much more. The project was led by psychologists Olga Chaikovska and Svitlana Chiborovska.

A training session called ‘Circle of Strength’ was held for people with disabilities who regularly attend events at the Resilience Centre. Participants were able to stabilise and balance their psycho-emotional state, gain inner harmony and peace of mind using art therapy techniques. The event was held under the professional guidance of psychologist Olga Chaikovska and social specialist Oksana Yurok.

For the children of the Berdychiv City Territorial Community, the event was held in the library. The topic of the meeting was: ‘Search for Internal Resources’. The participants were taught psychological resilience techniques and the ability to overcome anxiety. This was done by psychologist Inna Kuzmenko and social specialist Alyona Smetana.

An important achievement of this day was the social wardrobe. Social specialists and volunteers of the Caritas Berdychiv UGCC Charitable Foundation, in cooperation with the Patriarchal Foundation Mudra Sprava, managed to organise a social wardrobe for people in need, internally displaced persons and victims of the russian war against Ukraine. The event helped more than 90 families receiving services at the Resilience Centre of the Berdychiv community. The event was organised by Elena Khavroniuk and Lyudmila Sirodzitinova. The benefactors who provided humanitarian aid of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and footwear were the Government of Slovakia.

It is worth adding that the resilience building service is implemented by Caritas Berdychiv UGCC with the support of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine and is part of the All-Ukrainian mental health programme # How_Are_You? of First Lady Olena Zelenska.