Lifeline Ukraine has launched a project to conduct educational seminars

With the support of the Australian Embassy, a project to conduct educational seminars has been launched

In January 2022, Lifeline Ukraine, with the support of the Embassy of Australia in Ukraine, launched a project to conduct educational seminars on the prevention of suicide and the support of mental health. To date, the organization's experts have conducted seminars for organizations such as the Kyiv City Centre for Family, Children, and Youth Services, the NGO "Rivne-TACMED", the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute", the All-Ukrainian Association of Women "DIYA", the Kyiv Youth Centre, the Open International University of Human Development "Ukraine", directly reaching more than 200 people.

Due to the poorly developed system of service provision in the field of mental health and the taboo nature of the topic of suicides, people are often left alone in crisis states. Educating adults about experiencing psychological crises, suicidal tendencies, emotional support, timely response, and redirection will increase the chances of individuals at risk of suicide receiving timely support and assistance, affecting overall psychological well-being and reducing the number of suicide cases.

Our goal: increasing awareness on the prevention of suicidal behaviour and fostering a culture of mental health care.

Raising awareness draws attention to suicide prevention through the following messages:

• Suicide is a major public health issue. Those affected can seek help.

• How to recognise and support people having suicidal thoughts.

• How to start a conversation about suicide and appropriately respond to suicidal behaviour.

Raising societal awareness helps to:

• inform that suicide is a serious problem that requires attention;

• reduce the stigma around suicides by dispelling myths and misconceptions and discussing attitudes or beliefs about mental health and suicide, including attitudes towards people who have attempted suicide or who have lost family members to suicide;

• enhance awareness of the role of individuals in supporting people at risk;

• encourage by offering help;

• provide knowledge on where to seek help.

Seminar Topics:

Currently, the line specialists, who are speakers at the seminars, offer the following topics that directly relate to the prevention of suicidal behaviour or are relevant to this issue:

1. Preventing Suicide: A Conversation for Life.
2. Algorithm for Providing Psychological Help to a Person Expressing Suicidal Intentions.
3. About Mental Health: How to Care for Yourself and Loved Ones.
4. Online Counselling for Crisis Clients.
5. Psychological Safety: Living with Self-Care.
6. Suicide: Hotline Cases. How to Turn Towards Life.
7. Female Suicide: Who? How? Why?
8. Prevention of Emotional (Professional) Burnout.
9. Prevention of Child and Adolescent Suicide.
10. Suicide Prevention Among Military Personnel and Veterans.

With increased awareness at both community and national levels, demand for appropriate services and support will grow. Our suicide prevention hotline has been operating 24/7 since 2019. Currently, more than 18,700 calls have been received.

We are the first specialised line in Ukraine and one of the few that operates 24/7. We have a trained team of specialists who have been trained by international experts and have significant experience in crisis counselling for suicide prevention. Over a period of 2 years, expertise has been accumulated in providing emotional support and crisis counselling services, which is understood and needs to be disseminated among a wide range of interested individuals and organisations, such as government bodies, commercial service organisations, and non-profit public organisations that provide targeted services to the population.