Ukrainian doctor Yuliana Ilina lives and works in the capital Kiev, far from the front line of the war with Russia. Nevertheless, Ukrainian victims are estimated at half a million. She describes the loss and pain of her fellow citizens with a quote from the 17th century English poet John Donne: “No man is an island. … The death of every man diminishes me.”

The war has displaced millions of people and, although she lives far from the worst of the fighting, it still impacts the daily lives of Ilina, her colleagues and patients.

The ongoing stresses of war have created a “mental health emergency” among Ukrainians, said Dr. Israel Liberzon, who, along with colleagues at the Texas A&M University College of Medicine, focuses on trauma care in the country. Thanks to a $1.4 million Fogarty grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Liberzon and Dr. Tetiana Nickelsen were able to travel to Ukraine to teach and lecture and bring mental health professionals from there to Texas for training.

Liberzon and Nickelsen were both born in Ukraine.

“Mental illnesses are often unrecognized and untreated,” says Liberzon, who leads the team of experts. “These problems are chronic and disabling. Ukraine lacks mental health specialists who can provide evidence-based treatments, as well as researchers in trauma/PTSD and implementation science.”

Nickelsen said A&M’s training is not just about teaching cutting-edge trauma care, but also about scientific implementation that will study the effectiveness and dissemination of these treatment approaches in real life in Ukraine.

At launch, demand for the program was high: Of the 345 applications received, 40 Ukrainian psychologists and psychiatrists were accepted. The five-year project began in earnest with the A&M team’s first visit to Kyiv in May 2023; the first training workshop took place in Lviv, Ukraine, in October of the same year. This summer, Ilina and three other trainees came to the Texas A&M University campus for the program’s US summer semester.

Training focuses on evidence-based treatments including prolonged exposure therapy, pharmacotherapy (treatment with medications), cognitive processing therapy and other exposure-based therapies such as EMDR (eye movement desensitization and processing), and implementation science.

The programme aims to ensure its sustainability by introducing training modules into the existing programmes of Ukrainian universities, including the Kyiv Mohila National Academy and the Ukrainian Catholic University. Discussions are currently underway on the possible participation of other universities.

Effects of mass violence

It is estimated that up to a third of Ukrainians, both civilians and military personnel, may be suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the 2014-2021 conflict between the country and Russia. Since the 2022 invasion, millions more have been exposed to combat and war-related trauma. Liberzon’s team estimates that tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers could develop PTSD as a result of the current conflict.

As a psychiatrist in the inpatient department of a psychiatric hospital, Ilina treats civilians, veterans and active military personnel. “We have a lot of air raid sirens in Kyiv, so we have to go to our shelters. This happens while I’m at work, with patients and colleagues,” she said. “The situation with electricity is pretty bad – most days we only have electricity in our homes for 4-5 hours a day.”

Last month, Russia hit the Ohmatdytv children’s hospital in Kyiv with a missile, killing more than 40 people. “It is a great tragedy and also a reminder that no one is completely safe and every moment of life could be the last,” Ilina said.

Ilina said in the first weeks and months of the large-scale invasion, there were problems with pre-existing mental health issues because Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes. They did not know where to find psychiatric help in their new locations, she said, and not everyone had access to their medications.

“But over time we are dealing more with the consequences of severe psychological trauma – with veterans, their family members, soldiers on duty, civilians from the occupied territories, victims of rocket attacks and so on,” she said.

Ilina, who has returned home from her stay in Aggieland, said her time as an intern in the program was an “amazing” learning opportunity.

“Their strong evidence-based approach contributes significantly to my understanding of the PTSD problem,” she said.

A&M Student Support

Aggie students are also supporting the people of Ukraine. The effort is being led by the Ukrainian Club at TAMU, a student-run organization whose main goal is to raise awareness of Ukraine and share its culture.

President Natalya Kolomiyets says the group is proud to partner with the Arlene Campbell Humanitarian Foundation (ACHF), a nonprofit that sends medical supplies to Ukraine. “For example, at our famous and very well-attended Pysanka (Easter egg decorating) workshops, 100% of the donations collected there went to the ACHF.”

Next up for the students is a concert entitled “Homeland from Afar” at the Rudder Theater on the Texas A&M campus on August 28th from 5 to 8 p.m.

The free concert, open to everyone, is made possible by the Good Bull Foundation and is dedicated to “all those who were forced to leave their homeland because of the war” and will be accompanied by Ukrainian musicians Alex Syedin and Oleksandra Pelitu.

The event will not only “showcase Ukrainian culture and its beauties, but also encourage Aggies to embrace their ethnicity and nationality,” the group said in a press release. “Events like this bring joy to those students who may be homesick or feel alienated from their homeland and can help them find a new family far from home.”

Ilina encourages everyone who reads her story to contribute to the improvement of their homeland in any way they can. And as a doctor, she says, she does her best for her patients: “I can at least make their lives less painful… to emerge victorious in this tough battle.”