As Ukraine war drags on, civilians' mental health needs rise

The World Health Organization says one in five people in countries that have experienced conflict in the past decade will suffer from a mental health condition, and estimates that about 9.6 million people in Ukraine could be affected.

Huddled in the back of a cafe near the train station where a missile killed dozens of people a year ago, Nastya took slow, deliberate breaths to calm herself. Overnight, her neighbourhood had been bombed again, and she just couldn't take any more.

Heeding her parents' advice, the 20-year-old woman had visited the nearby psychiatric hospital that morning -- a place that also bore the scars of war after being repeatedly bombed, including by a missile that destroyed part of the building last September. But the staff swept up the shattered glass, shoveled away the debris and carried on working, determined to stay in Kramatorsk, in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, to help those in need.

For Nastya, it was a lifeline.

"After today's shelling, I could no longer cope with anxiety, the feeling of constant danger," the speech therapy student said, giving only her first name to talk last month about the difficult decision to seek mental health care. The stigma of Soviet-era psychiatry, when dissidents were incarcerated in psychiatric institutions as a form of punishment, still lingers.

"I just realized that my psychological health is much more important," she said.

There are hundreds of thousands like Nastya in Ukraine, experts say, and the number of people needing psychological help is only expected to rise as the war continues. In December, the World Health Organization said one in five people in countries that have experienced conflict in the past decade will suffer from a mental health condition, and estimated that about 9.6 million people in Ukraine could be affected.

Russia's invasion in February 2022 resulted in millions of people being displaced, bereaved, forced into basements for months due to incessant shelling or enduring harrowing journeys from Russian-occupied regions.