In 2023, psychologists and volunteers of the Russian Red Cross (RRC), Russia's oldest humanitarian organisation, provided psychological assistance and psychosocial support to over 150,460 people. More than 88 per cent of them sought help due to stress and anxiety.
Since the beginning of 2023, the RRC's team of volunteer psychologists, consisting of 1,585 people, has processed over 14.7 thousand applications through the organisation's hotline and 21.8 thousand chatbot requests. Russian Red Cross specialists also conducted 24,821 face-to-face individual psychological counselling sessions with people in need. Over 340 more people visited support groups operating on the basis of 38 Regional Branches of the RRC. In addition, in 2023, 1,250 children evacuated from Shebekino and over 6,500 children attending RRC Centres for Children and Parents received psychological assistance.
"In the summer of 2023, Russian Red Cross Centres for Children and Parents opened in Belgorod, Vladimir, Vologda and Voronezh regions, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Kaluga, Sverdlovsk, Novgorod and Pskov regions, as well as in St. Petersburg. In another 15 regions of the country, we have introduced a unified methodology for providing psychosocial support to children. Thanks to this, 6,559 children and teenagers were able to receive the necessary help" - Leyla Gajimagomedova, Head of the Psychosocial Support Division of the Russian Red Cross.
In the absolute majority of cases (88.1%), people who contacted the RRC hotline needed support in connection with stressful conditions and adaptations to them. Over 600 more people left requests for individual psychological support. The majority ofsuch applications (16.5 % each) came from Moscow and St. Petersburg, 10.4 % of applicants live in the Moscow region, and 8 % live in the Krasnodar region.
As a rule, women (73%) apply to the Russian Red Cross for psychological support, and in 55% of cases they are relatives of servicemen and mobilised persons. The share of applications left by servicemen and mobilised persons themselves was 19%. Another 11 per cent of requests for individual psychological support were left by migrants, refugees and migrants, and in 6 per cent of cases the requests were left by relatives of young beneficiaries: parents and grandparents.
"We were able to identify that women who are relatives of mobilised and military personnel most often turn to us in connection with feelings of anxiety and fear. It is also this social group that turns to us in connection with acute experience of loss and grief. At the same time, military personnel themselves are more likely to contact the RRC for excessive anger and aggression, as well as panic attacks" – Anastasia Zvyagina,psychosocial support methodologist of the Russian Red Cross.
The most frequent reason for requesting individual psychological support from the RRC in 2023 was anxiety and fear - over a quarter of such requests (27%). Moreover, in November, the share of such requests reached the maximum for the year and amounted to 60%, while in December it dropped to 17%.
The third and fourth reasons for seeking individual psychological support at the RRC are bereavement (11 per cent of the sample) and aggression (9 per cent of the sample).
"We recorded that since the end of summer the shares of enquiries for both grief and aggression began to decline. For example, in the first half of 2023, the proportion of people seeking individual psychological support for bereavement and grief at the RRC ranged from 5% to 14%. Such requests peaked in July at 33 % and dropped to 17 % by the end of the year," said Anastasia Zvyagina, methodologist for psychosocial support at the Russian Red Cross. - The peak in the number of requests related to aggression and anger was in June (41 %), by October it reached 13 %, and in November and December there were no such requests".
During 2023, 7% of people left requests for individual psychological support because of difficulties in child-parent relations and because of the problem of forming negative coping methods (methods of coping with stress).
Anastasia Zvyagina, Methodologist for Psychosocial Support of the Russian Red Cross, explained: "Some people use stress coping techniques, i.e. coping behaviours, which can have a detrimental effect on their health and wellbeing. Examples include self-medicating with medication or drinking alcohol to suppress anxiety, discomfort or distress. For this reason, some become aggressive or threatening to others, and some isolate themselves completely from other people."
People who needed support with personal relationships, panicattacks and suicidal tendencies also applied for individualpsychological support.
According to Leyla Gadzhimagomedova, the sharp increase in appeals in connection with suicidal tendencies came in October 2023: "While from January to May the proportion of such requests ranged from 2% to 8%, and there were no such requests for the whole of summer and September, in October 13% of people needed help for suicidal tendencies. In December, the figure was 10%. Perhaps this trend is related to the seasonality of the occurrence of depressive states, which, according to various scientific estimates, falls in early autumn and spring."
"It can also be assumed that the increased number of such requests can be associated with the depletion of resources needed to adapt to the changing reality in people who make such requests. After all, the same situation can cause different reactions in different people and their intensity will also vary," explained Anastasia Zvyagina. - In particular, the American suicidologist Edwin Shneidman wrote that due to unbearable mental pain, feelings of isolation from society and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, death may seem to be the only solution to problems in an attempt to either get rid of suffering or to influence others".
In addition to consultations on the hotline and in Regional Branches, the Russian Red Cross trains young people and students in psychological first aid and further work in the organisation'sfederal services. In 2023, more than 80 people received such training and began to provide psychological support to those in need through the RRC chatbot and hotline.
