Help Us Help’s The Return/Повернення Project consists of four programs: (1) Peer-to-Peer Training for Spouses of Veterans, (2) “The Return/Повернення” Family Retreat, (3) Weekly Veteran Support Group Meetings, and (4) Post-Combat Humanitarian Assistance. Because our programs most greatly benefit participants who both need and actively seek support, applications are only accepted directly from participants and not by recommendation nor any third party.

All of our programs are conducted using a professionally-guided peer-to-peer approach.

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This means veterans and spouses new to our programs are largely supported and trained by veterans and spouses who have previously participated in our programs. The support and training that past participants provide is further guided by military psychologists who similarly participated in active combat.

Why? From our experiences and conversations with veterans and their families in Ukraine, we have come to understand that the individuals involved greatly benefit from working through trauma with people who have had similar life experiences, rather than those who can be perceived as far-removed from the situation or experience.

This program seeks to provide mobile support services for veterans who cannot travel or who live in remote areas in the Kyiv oblast. This program is run by Veteran Hub in Ukraine, supported by Help Us Help and IREX.

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In addition to the 24 thousand veterans in Kyiv city, there are over 18 thousand veterans in the rest of the oblast. According to statistics collected by government officials, about 8% of those veterans experience reduced mobility due to physical or mental injuries or disabilities. This results in reduced access to treatment and professional services, reduced access to relevant information and reduced opportunity to participate in surveys and research.

Through this year-long program, professional support staff will travel to remote areas in the Kyiv oblast to provide the veterans living there with psychological, legal, case management and employment support. The first stage involves assessing the needs and living conditions of the veterans as well as providing them with information about opportunities available through this program. The second stage involves determining how to provide the identified veterans and their families with personalized support. Lastly, the third stage involves 8 months of consistent delivery of personalized support and community building activities. Throughout this program, studies will be conducted to assess and track the physical and mental health of the veterans, in accordance with the Veteran Hub’s privacy policy.

“So nobody is left behind / Ніхто не залишиться осторонь (Ukrainian)”

This program seeks to empower spouses of veterans to deal with their personal psychological trauma, related to their partner’s combat experience, as well as train them to effectively support their partner and children, other veterans, and other spouses of veterans.

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The program is divided into five stages that occur over a six month period. The first four stages are executed at the Veteran Hub in Kyiv and the fifth and final stage takes place at a secluded resort in the Carpathian mountains in Ukraine.

The stages:

1. Self-realization of trauma:
   Focus on basic but critical themes that will form the foundation for subsequent training stages. These themes are trauma and shock, and the function of body and hormones in relation to trauma and shock.

2. Physical and social strategies of work with post-shock anxiety and trauma:
   Focus on developing strategies that allow individuals to: appropriately communicate and interact with others, identify a network of individuals with whom they feel they can comfortably and safely address their own trauma or shock experiences.

3. Shock History and Trauma Recovery:
   Focus on awareness of, understanding of and accepting past shock and trauma and the decisions that led to trauma. To enable growth and development, this stage teaches participants to identify and further develop resources acquired throughout their lives as well as find and actualize those resources in shock states.

4. Re-orientation and Post-Traumatic Growth:
   Focus on awareness of the new skills developed throughout training, as well as utilizing those skills to reacquaint oneself with his/her environment and create personal plans and goals for his/her future.

5. “Повернення//The Return” Family Retreat (see below):
   All stages involve the use of the peer-to-peer approach of training and the Bodynamic approach of somatic therapy. The original Bodynamic method was developed by Lisbeth Marcher in 1968. The Bodynamic training was further developed by her daughter, Ditte Marcher, to be combat-specific, based on over 30 years of experience working in conflict and war zones, and was introduced to Ukraine in 2015. A clinical research study has been conducted that supports our continued use of this method of training.

   Currently, this program accepts 25 spouses of veterans who, over the six month training period, work with two military psychologists (one of whom is a Ukrainian veteran) and four graduates of our previously run programs. For more information about this program, click here to read the evidence that supports this program.

The Return/Повернення Family Retreat is the fifth stage of the Peer-to-Peer Training for Spouses of Veterans. The participants include not only the spouses who have undergone the aforementioned training, but also the combat veterans and their children.

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The 12-day program includes family-oriented activities as well as somatic and psychological therapy. It is the culmination of the training the spouses of combat veterans undergo and ultimately contributes to the entire family’s recovery from the consequences of war, allowing them to return to normal everyday life.

As in our other programs, the leaders of this program are military psychologists as well as veterans and spouses who have previously completed our Peer-to-Peer Training program. Each participant engages in a minimum of six hours daily of reorientation, adaptation and reintegration therapy according to the peer-to-peer and Bodynamics approaches defined above. The overall program additionally includes ethnocultural workshops, art therapy, rest, physical activity, excursions, and child-care.

Throughout the program, the children receive therapy inadvertently through various activities such as games and arts-and-crafts. The children’s sessions are conducted by children’s psychologists and workshop specialists. Throughout the entire retreat, child care is provided to allow the parents, both combat veterans and spouses, to fully participate. Initially parents participate in large-group therapy. Following this, adult group therapy continues but is split into two groups, combat veterans and spouses. The absence of one’s spouse often allows an individual the opportunity to feel more comfort in opening up and disclosing information about their experiences and trauma. Throughout the program, each participant also has opportunities for individual one-on-one sessions, couple sessions and family sessions with trainers or psychologists with whom they feel comfortable. This individualized approach allows each family member affected by war to begin their healing process so that they may continue to heal and function again as one complete family unit.

Weekly Veteran Support Group Meetings are held using a peer-to-peer approach and guided by a psychologist and/or a trainer. Importantly, these meetings are open to any interested veteran and on a drop-in basis.

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The goal of this program is to create a safe space in which veterans or their spouses can share their experiences relating to combat and their return home. The meetings are focused on promoting growth and development of individuals suffering from trauma and are led by military psychologists and/or trainers who have successfully completed previous training programs (such as our “Peer-to-Peer Training for Spouses of Veterans” above).