Story
Since April 2022, TTI has been delivering our Ukraine Healing from
Trauma project to ensure that refugees arriving in the UK are supported to recover from the devastating impact of war. The project aims to ensure that host households, workplaces and communities in the UK in which Ukrainian refugees are starting to rebuild their lives are knowledgeable about trauma, know how to recognise the signs of mental distress, and know how best to help. With the right support, people who have been through the most terrifying and horrific events can recover from psychological trauma.
The two most important factors in this recovery are social contact and routine and stability. These are two things that host families and local communities will and can provide. But being a host of a refugee from Ukraine is also a huge challenge and the stress on both the Ukrainian guests and their hosts cannot be underestimated.
We are already witnessing many cases of the breakdown of relationship between guest and host, resulting in homelessness, uncertainty and increased danger for the very people we wish to help. This is why it is really important that individual hosts and communities feel confident that they understand trauma, and how to best provide support within this reality, in order to facilitate psychological recovery.
TTI has put together a toolkit for local communities, to ensure they are trauma informed. If we do this right, every refugee fleeing war can recover from trauma within an environment that is safe, protective and enables personal regrowth. But if we get it wrong, the consequences for those in flight, for local communities and for already strained NHS services will be considerable.
Your support will enable us to roll out our toolkit and deliver training
into the heart of local communities via a team of clinical psychologists with expertise in trauma and war. Together we can ensure that those escaping war and terror in their home countries, can find friendship and stability in the UK within trauma-informed communities and homes that help them heal and flourish.