From 2 to 5 August 2022 in Bratislava, IOM conducted a training for its partner organization IPčko on how to provide community-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to people in emergency that fled the war in Ukraine.

Trained professionals will start provide MHPSS to people from Ukraine currently living in Slovakia. Photo © International Organization for Migration (IOM) 2022.

IOM trained the first group of 14 psychologists and social workers who will start to provide MHPSS to people from Ukraine from August 2022. Their assistance will gradually cover all regions of Slovakia.

In order to be able to provide this assistance, they learned:

• how mental health and psychosocial support can look like in an emergency situation,
• what the possible consequences of forced migration and displacement on people are,
• how to comprehensively assess mental health conditions of people who were forced to flee,
• how to engage communities to support the mental health and well-being of affected people,
• how to intervene to improve a situation of people in emergency settings.

The participants also learned how to avoid, how to recognize and how to report sexual abuse and exploitation.

On the last day of the training, the professionals learned how to use this knowledge in practice. During their field trip to the Gabcikovo Accommodation Centre, they could experienced the environment and conditions of over hundreds of people that fled Ukraine and found temporary shelter in Slovakia.

With support of: