National psychological support helpline for Ukrainian refugees to be launched in Cork

Olena Yalanzhy is a volunteer caller ambassador with Call Tanya psychosocial support helpline for Ukrainians living in Ireland. Picture: Denis Minihane

A national psychological supports helpline for Ukrainians living in Ireland has been launched amid calls for refugees with counselling or medical skills to be fast-tracked into employment.

The plea for faster recognition of refugees’ clinical or medical qualifications came as the ‘Call Tanya’ helpline is to be launched by the migrant support group Together-Razem in Cork’s City Hall on Monday night. 

The pilot project is supported by the Community Foundation for Ireland and Cork City Council Healthy Ireland.

Together-Razem's chief executive Wojciech Bialek said there were many refugees living here with clinical or medical qualifications who would like to work in their own field but who are being delayed from doing so by red tape.

“We are a migrant-led support group and we have been seeing this issue for a long time now, but more recently with Ukrainian refugees,” he said.

“We have seen psychologists, counsellors, therapists, even GPs, who would like to work here but are still in the process of having their qualifications recognised. It just takes so long.

We would like the State to let them work here, so that they can help their own, and contribute to this country.” 

He was speaking as he announced the launch of the new Call Tanya service, which aims to provide confidential psycho-social support to Ukrainians living in Ireland who are experiencing distress due to displacement or because of the war in their native country.

Callers will be able to have a conversation in either Ukrainian or Russian with a trained call ambassador about their worries or concerns, hopefully leading to a reduction in stress and distress levels, and to increased wellbeing.

The support provided by the trained call-taking volunteers will be in line with the Psychological First Aid model of look, listen, support — a model designed to help people who have experienced distressing or crisis events in a way that respects their dignity, culture, and abilities.

Together-Razem has been working with the Ukrainian community in Ireland since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, delivering many practical supports but also focusing on mental health and wellbeing supports.

It runs a weekly support group for Ukrainian women and in May 2022, it launched a trauma counselling service in the Ukrainian language, provided by a qualified, professional Ukrainian psychotherapist who was educated in Ireland and accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

The service is in huge demand, with about 20 calls a week, but the psychotherapist is only available to the service for 10 hours a week, leading to a lengthy waiting list.

Mr Bialek said the Call Tanya service should help meet some of that demand.

Project coordinator Alyona Capatici said it had taken about four months of detailed planning to get the project off the ground.

“We have skilled Ukrainian and Russian-speaking volunteers with psychology credentials from Ukraine and they are available to provide listening service to Ukrainians in Ireland. We will introduce Telegram chat soon too,” she said.

The helpline is open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am to 11am and from 3pm to 6pm on tel: [phone].