On Sept. 4, the UN News Center’s Twitter (X) account shared the following: “Nearly four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the toll on mental health across the country is severe.” We all know this to be true, whether we are in Ukraine or observing from the outside, this war has had a significant effect on our mental health. As the Founder of Ukraine’s national suicide prevention hotline, I can even quantify that, to a degree.
Every single month, consistently for at least the last year, Lifeline Ukraine receives roughly 6,500 requests for support. That number has risen steadily throughout the full-scale invasion; before that terrible event, Lifeline Ukraine was providing 1,000 instances of support per month.
As well as demand for emotional and psychological support surging, the nature of the work of Lifeline Ukraine has also evolved in recent years as we’ve reacted to the events happening in this country and prepared our team to deal with the awful psychological effects of the actions of the invading Russian army.
We have, for example, brought in expert knowledge on how we help rape victims. We have learned of the particular kind of support torture victims require. Those are just two examples, out of many, of how we’ve adapted to the changing needs of a nation caught in the most unjust war in history.
Despite those facts, the demonstrable and obvious need for such a service to exist, especially now, Lifeline Ukraine will have to pause operations from Oct. 1.
There is one reason for this, and it is a problem faced by many charities in Ukraine: a lack of funding. Obviously, events like the termination of all USAID programs leaves a smaller funding pool available to organizations that exist within the international donor community.
The challenge to secure funding for vital operations is not unique to Lifeline Ukraine, and the search for the next grant to restore operations is ongoing, but what I can state for certain is that this organization is 100% capable of returning to fulfill its life-saving work just as soon as funding is in place to meet the necessary running costs. What is a terrible fact, though, is that during this pause, people will be unable to access support during an emotional crisis.
For almost seven years, Lifeline Ukraine has been supporting the population of Ukraine, and for a total cost of roughly $2 million dollars the organization has provided over 130,000 instances of support during those years. The knowledge and expertise that exists within the organization is unique in Ukraine, and will serve as the foundation for the resumption of our work too. A team of professionals is in place, as soon as funding is in place, to again start to provide those required 6,500 instances of support per month.
In my early days of studying how suicide prevention hotlines work, because I had been asked to open one by the then-Minister of Health, I learned an interesting fact: That on average, around 15% of the calls (or chats) that come in from help-seekers are cases when there is an imminent threat to life. As in, that person has the intent to take their lives at that moment. In seven years, Lifeline Ukraine can therefore claim to have saved in excess of 20,000 lives. For a total cost of $2 million, the sum total of all funding to date. Here’s something that I have never calculated before: 20,000 lives saved at a cost of $2 million. That’s $100 to save a life, to avert the tragedy and heartbreak of a preventable death.
The other 85% of our work touches a variety of subjects, but it is all also life-saving to varying degrees. A large portion of the support we provide, around 35%, is to people who may not have suicidal intent, but do have suicidal thoughts. Our help, in those cases, helps prevent suicidal intent from developing. The reasons why an individual finds themselves in emotional crisis always vary, but whether a crisis arises for family or financial reasons, Lifeline Ukraine is where people turn to.
Another element of Ukraine’s current mental health environment, starkly contrasting to the obvious need for support in this area, is barriers to access. For one thing, Ukraine simply does not have enough trained mental health professionals, and that is an issue needing a longer-term solution, but at the present, that means that limited resources are being spread thinly during times of maximum need. A free-to-access, 24/7 hotline available to all Ukrainians clearly eliminates barriers to access.
The beneficiaries of Lifeline Ukraine are the people of Ukraine. People from all walks of life. Young and old. Gay and straight. Regardless of religious affiliations or any other political persuasions, Lifeline Ukraine has been a neutral and nonjudgmental source of comfort to them on over 130,000 occasions.
The work of Lifeline Ukraine will continue, because it must; it would not only be irresponsible to allow a life-saving resource to simply stop work, it would be deadly. So we find ourselves asking now whether the community that we serve, Ukraine, can do more to fund its national suicide prevention resource. We have built it, it’s there, it exists, ready to save lives day and night, should companies and individuals feel that this is important enough for them to warrant supporting it.
What I have to do, and am doing, is continuing to search for grants that are relevant to our field. Saving lives. You’d think that would be easy. What I know will happen is that the institution that is Lifeline Ukraine will continue to exist, and it will learn and adapt to the ever-changing needs of the country that we serve.
The degree to which Lifeline Ukraine is able to manage the workload as demanded is not limited by internal capacity; it is only limited by money. So, if we can get to a monthly commitment of recurring donations in the region of $4,000 monthly, the hotline will be able to at least have some presence during the nighttime hours when we are needed most.
When a new grant is secured to return to a more complete 24/7 operation, those same monthly commitments will help us to add more hotline hours worked and save even more lives.
Every little bit helps.
We just received notification of a new monthly £8 ($11) donation through our GlobalGiving fundraising tool, and these all add up.
Together, as we say in Ukraine, we are stronger.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
