How war affects journalists’ mental state and work was discussed offline on September 24 with Ukrainian media professionals as part of the fall meetings at the National Press Club Ukraine.
The guests at the discussion were Anastasiia Nizhnik, psychotherapist, counselor, and co-founder of the mental health center BrainCult and the Resilience Hub project, Tetiana Lohvynenko, deputy editor-in-chief of Babel, Mykyta Skoblikov, a UA: PBC journalist, Olha Kryzhanovska, a TRC Kyiv journalist, Oleksandr Omelchuk, general producer of the OMTVUA YouTube channel group, and Yaroslav Kobzar, commercial director of Babel.
The moderators were Taras Petriv of Souspilnist Foundation and Andrii Sydorenko of the Resilience Hub.
The discussion centered on the widespread issue of the psychological exhaustion of employees. It affects the quality of the employees’ life and work.
Therefore, support during wartime is crucial and should not be neglected. Media outlets should unite their employees, engage qualified psychologists to avoid burnout among their employees, and attract funds for medical insurance and assistance.
The Babel publication’s representatives shared their positive experiences of providing support in the newsroom despite the lack of funding at the beginning of the war.
We really care about each other because respect for one’s personal life and time is essential. The newsroom’s primary goal is to support people. People, strength, hearts, and resources are running out, but the war is not. But you have to continue working. And it’s in this direction that we do much to prevent breakdowns because we all have to survive, said Tetiana Lohvynenko.
Mykola Skoblikov informed the participants about a psychologist working in their organization for several months:
UA:PBC is a vast organization. If we draw a parallel with Babel, UA:PBC is more for people: listeners and viewers. At the war’s beginning, many colleagues just burned out. We’ve had a psychologist in the Kyiv newsroom for several months now. Any colleague can chat about work-related problems, and such conversations can last one, two, or three hours until the person stops talking.
Approximately 25% of people who’ve had a traumatic experience will have PTSD. Currently, most people are going through a period of acute stress. We can still help ourselves so that the consequences are not similar to those of the Second World War, – noted Anastasiia Nizhnik.
Souspilnist Foundation organized the expert discussion with the support of Internews Ukraine, Detector Media, the National Press Club, and the Independent Media Council.
