FEATURES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE TO CHILDREN OF FORCEDLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN WAR CONDITIONS
Authors:   H.S. Kostyuk Institute of Psychology of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Omelchenko Yanina 
Published: November 2024

The article presents the results of reflecting on the practical experience of psychological support for children of forcibly displaced persons within Ukraine and temporarily displaced persons abroad due to the war. The main problem areas faced by specialists working in crisis conditions are outlined. The article highlights the key issues faced by children suffering from forced displacement, the strategies, and main directions of psychological work with these children.

Symptoms caused by stress factors related to war events significantly affect children's mental processes, disrupting their educational activities and introducing a destructive element into the educational environment. The consequences of stress impact the child’s adaptability, their ability to establish and maintain social interactions, and over time, children develop feelings of alienation, dissociation, and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Often, as a result of war experiences or terrorist acts, children develop tendencies toward deviant behavior, violence in social environments, and substance abuse (alcohol and drugs).

Currently, the psychological issues faced by children are acute and significantly disrupt their functioning on various levels. Psychological assistance for children should be accessible and widespread, keeping in mind that specialists usually provide short-term support, and contact with children is often limited in time. Psychological help should be structured in a way that allows psychotechnics to be applied both individually and in groups, and it should also include recommendations for developing self-help skills, stress resilience, and life stamina. In these crisis conditions, the specialist’s goal in working with internally displaced persons (IDPs) and their children should be to foster the development of skills for independent care of their mental health.

The following features of psychological assistance for IDP and TDP children in wartime conditions have been identified: when developing a strategy for psychological assistance, it is important to consider its mass orientation; psychological support should be accessible; it should include both short-term targeted programs and long-term or continuous support programs; psychological support programs should include techniques applicable individually, in groups, and suitable for self-practice by the affected individuals; attention should be paid to preserving emotional balance and preventing professional burnout, as well as retraumatization of specialists working with the affected population, as they themselves are often in a traumatic environment; all stress factors affecting children, particularly IDP and TDP children, should be considered. In addition to the general factors related to war, they suffer from the loss of home, familiar surroundings, and friends. Due to the compounded stress of parents, who also suffer from the consequences of forced displacement, IDP children lose their sense of reliable, supportive adults, some experience separation from significant caregivers, or, as a result of excessive stress on adults, lose emotional contact with them.