A Ukrainian delegation is touring the United States talking about mental health treatment for people in war zones. They're sharing what they've learned and hoping to pick up new information from local professionals.
Hannah Norbunova has been working with children and families. “It’s too difficult speaking with parents who lost their children,” she says. “They lost (their) dream, they lost sense of life. We want to see how you work with these people.”
Norbunova says they work with traumatized adults and children, and soldiers. She says concussions from explosions can cause a lot of trauma to the ears, the eyes, and to the psyche.
She says doctors need to use psychology to treat victims.
The delegation arrived in Washington last week and toured Walter Reed Hospital.
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Nataliaya Vynorhradova is facilitating the visit. She agrees physicians have to treat physical and psychological injuries.
“Physical injury is really difficult to cope (with), and to accept that you’re not going to have the same life anymore,” she says. “Like when a person depends on everyone like ... whenever he needs to … have a glass of water and he can’t pour it himself.”
She says that often leads to depression.
Members of the panel have been visiting treatment facilities in the Cincinnati area this week, with assistance from members of the Cincinnati Kharkiv Sister City Partnership. The trip to the United States is sponsored by the Congressional Office for International Leadership.
Members of the Ukrainian delegation will be on a panel, Thursday night, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m., at the Forest Park Branch Library.
