Authors: Nataliia Gusak, James Martin, and Cindy Sousa
Source: Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, DOI: 10.1007/s41134-024-00317-z, June 2024
Type of Publication: Article
Abstract: The ongoing illegal and inhumane Russian invasion and continued military aggression in Ukraine, along with the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory, severely undermines the health and well-being of all Ukrainian citizens. This war creates acute challenges for those engaged in providing social welfare and mental health services, particularly for Ukranian social workers—members of a relatively new profession in Ukraine. This war creates an acute need for the provision of trauma-based services, a need that is especially challenging for health and mental health providers because they also share the stress of this war. No one, client or helper, is exempt from the pain and suffering caused by this war. Responding to ethical and practical needs for social work solidarity across global contexts of war and ongoing suffering, social work scholar-educators from Ukraine and the USA collaboratively created and launched a seven-session virtual professional development seminar series for Ukrainian social workers (30 participants in the first and 41 participants in the second). This article critically reflects on lessons learned from these seminars, with data gathered from 11 volunteers from the two cohorts. These volunteers were subsequently interviewed by one of the authors (in the Ukrainian language). Our findings point to how the seminars addressed the consequences of war, focusing on the following: (1) safety and those basic needs typically occurring in traumatized environments, (2) applying social-ecological and life course theory to suffering, (3) promoting natural care networks to build resilience among families, peer providers, and community leaders, and (4) addressing burnout and compassion fatigue among these social workers. According to participant data, the focus on self- and community care helped address burnout and compassion fatigue among these participants. Results point to ways these seminars helped establish cross-border, collaborative professional education as a form of health solidarity that serves to confront the realities of war and uphold social work’s ethical commitment to the promotion of peace.
Nataliia Gusak is a faculty fellow, James Martin in a professor emeritus of social work, and Cindy Sousa is a professor of social work at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.