Mental Health Relief in Ukraine - May 2022-May 2023

The invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 led to the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War. The invasion brought unimaginable suffering for the Ukrainian population, tens of thousands of death among civilians and military, and the deliberate bombing of medical institutions including those for mental health care. This required an urgent upscaling of psychological support for persons traumatized by the events. In the course of the year FGIP tried to meet the demand in the best possible way. We tripled our turnover as a result of fundraising drives, expanded the organization accordingly and initiated a wide range of new projects. In 2022, FGIP spent 1,5 million euro on direct and practical aid to meet the enormous demand for mental health care support for Ukraine.

This report focuses on three of our main activities in meeting the mental health needs of Ukrainian civilians.

Delivery of humanitarian and material aid

During the first months of the war, FGIP delivered large quantities of humanitarian aid to more than two dozen institutions, including those on the front line. Two vans with trailers were purchased to deliver the aid. Eventually, one van was donated to a social care home in Lutsk where large numbers of evacuees from the East have found refuge, and the trailers are used to help civilians flee from the Eastern front line.

Financial support from the Pittsburgh-based Brothers’ Brother Foundation, psychiatric associations (notably the Polish and German associations and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of psychiatrists), private donations (of which a large number from Germany) and the award money of the Pardes Humanitarian Award in Mental Health (awarded to FGIP CEO Robert van Voren, donated to the Ukraine relief program of FGIP, and subsequently generously doubled by the Brothers’ Brother Foundation) enabled FGIP to purchase nineteen generators for mental health care institutions: one 120 kW, twelve 32 kW, three 24kW and three 11 kW. They were delivered to mental health care institutions in Ukraine, with a priority to institutions near the front line in the East and South of the country.

In addition, we purchased over 1,000 headlamps, allowing medical staff to make their rounds during blackouts. They were disseminated among institutions in packages of 20-25 for each institution..

The total cost of this program was 512.413 euro (=$ 548.689).

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Help us help our Ukrainian colleagues!

FGIP has been working in Ukraine for more than thirty years and has a huge community of friends and colleagues there. FGIP is doing everything possible  to help them during these difficult times. We have started a large-scale psychological aid program for the victims of this military conflict. A new self-help program was been set up in Ukrainian that provides resources to mental health professionals and helps the general population to deal with the psychological consequences of this war. Please support us with your donation.