Since last June, the School of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has been implementing a unique series of interventions to help Ukrainian refugee children in Greece aged 6 to 14 build psychosocial resilience skills through diverse arts, including painting, theatre, music, and architecture.
This action is a joint effort of the Postgraduate Programme Global Health – Disaster Medicine of the School of Medicine of NKUA and the British Organization AMNA. An interdisciplinary team of social scientists, social anthropologists, musicians, graduates of the School of Fine Arts, health psychologists, and occupational therapists developed the action, which is being carried out in collaboration with civil society representatives.
In the words of Mr Emmanouil Pikoulis, Dean of the School of Health Sciences of NKUA and Director of the Postgraduate Programme Global Health – Disaster Medicine: ‘Psychological trauma related to violence in all its forms is common among Ukrainian children and adolescents constituting a risk factor for increased mental and physical morbidity in later life. We have a duty as a health care system to intervene and prevent the worsening of any mental and emotional problems they may experience so that they be affected as less as possible in the future.
Art is indispensable in this effort not only for children but also for their families and caregivers, as it enhances the creation of safe living spaces. The term ‘safe spaces’ includes not only the minimum care standards but also psychological stability and security and, by extension, mindfulness.
The enthusiastic response and positive acceptance among the Ukrainian and academic communities of the new model of interventions we have designed based on elements such as gamified use of art, cultivation of imagination, self-expression, and creative activities enhance the effort towards the development of new open psychosocial resilience tools for children and adolescents.’
