TORONTO – The global coronavirus pandemic has created an urgent need to provide information to the public regarding its effects and coping mechanisms. Although there is plenty of information circulating on the Internet about the effects of COVID-19 on people’s physical health and the economy, there is a lack of information in the Ukrainian language on how it may affect mental health.
As a result, an online educational information series in the Ukrainian language has been created by Yana Kreminska and Adriana Luhovy. Focusing on the effects of COVID-19 and quarantine on mental health, the project is called “Coping with the effects of COVID-19.” Filming began on April 15, with the first video viewable online on April 29.
Co-director and editor Adriana Luhovy of the Ukrainian-language video series about COVID-19.
“We wanted to combine our skills and knowledge,” stated Ms. Luhovy. “We thought such a series was needed and could be very effective.” Both Ms. Luhovy’s and Ms. Kreminska’s professional backgrounds lend themselves to this important video project, which is quickly gaining a following.
Ms. Kreminska, originally from Ukraine, is a psychologist and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and schema therapy (ST) psychotherapist by profession, currently working towards transferring her credentials to practice in Ontario. She worked as a clinical practitioner for over six years at the Mental Heath Institute at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv and as the manager of the Psychological Counseling Center at UCU. Her clinical practice experience also includes working at the Lviv-based Kolo Simyi, which focuses on mental health in children and their families. Having moved to Toronto in 2018, Ms. Kreminska completed a human resources management program, and is currently with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
After the initial shock of the reality of COVID-19 and quarantine, Ms. Kreminska noticed that there was a lack of quality Ukrainian content online about mental health. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of inaccurate and misleading information on the theme of the pandemic and mental health. There is an incredible team of professionals in Ukraine, which does not have enough exposure to a larger audience,” she explained. “There is still a strong stigma against mental health and psychology currently present in Ukraine.”
Ms. Kreminska reached out to her colleagues, who agreed to be interviewed and thus supported the project.
The videos created by Ms. Kreminska and Ms. Luhovy are one way to push back against this stigma. “The more society is exposed to the topics of mental health, the more it will become the norm. It is important to always think of mental health as health,” Ms. Kreminska stated.
Ms. Luhovy’s professional background helped make the project happen. She completed communication studies at Concordia University, digital design at Vancouver Film School and design for social change at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She worked at a human rights organization in New York City, before embarking on the Canadian medical missions to Ukraine organized by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.
Ms. Luhovy’s documentaries include the award-winning film “Recovery Room” about Canadian humanitarian medical missions aiding injured Ukrainian soldiers in the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine; “Shores of Freedom” about the third wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada; and “Second Chance” about Canadian volunteers aiding orphaned children in Ukraine.
“I have a passion for projects which can raise awareness about important initiatives, this is such a project,” Ms. Luhovy commented. “Everyone in the world is currently affected because of COVID-19, and we all deserve to know from professionals how to best cope and what to expect.”
Like millions of others in Canada and worldwide, Ms. Luhovy has found that her work has been affected by the coronavirus crisis. Quarantine makes it almost impossible to continue to find work as a freelance videographer and photographer. All public gatherings have been put on hold indefinitely, all contracts cancelled. “I was excited to be a part of this project idea from the very beginning. It is timely, and it is urgently needed. We hope we can help others through this initiative.”
The filmed interviews with mental health experts were conducted in Ukrainian. So far, two videos have been completed; one has been translated into English. Interviews last up to an hour, and are then edited into approximately 10-minute segments, with captions inserted to highlight specific ideas. Ms. Luhovy also creates motion-graphic animations. “We try to complete the videos as quickly as possible, however, they do take time and a lot of work,” she pointed out.
The first interview was with Dr. Dennis Ougrin, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation; course director for the Master of Science in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IOPPN), Kings College, London; and editor-in-chief of the medical journal Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
In the video titled “How quarantine affects mental health of children,” Dr. Ougrin speaks about the positive and negative effects of quarantine on children’s mental health. On the one hand, “There is a massive number of children, who feel much better and their mental health is likely improving,” he explains. He suggests some possible explanations can be related to children staying at home, and not experiencing school- and exam-related stress as a factor. However, “The unfortunate negative effects of the pandemic and quarantine on some children include a rise in child abuse: physical, sexual and emotional,” Dr. Ougrin states.
On April 16, the second interview was conducted with mental health expert Dr. Oleh Romanchuk whose topic was “How to Develop Resilience.” This became the first completed video of the series to be officially launched online, on April 29.
Dr. Romanchuk is a psychiatrist and director of the Mental Health Institute at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. In this 12-minute video, Dr. Romanchuk introduces the subject and outlines the important elements for developing resilience, including how to perceive your current situation in a healthy and more adaptable way, creating resilient actions and behaviors that correlate with a resilient mind-set, taking care of ourselves, celebrating life and understanding what helps to live life to the fullest.
The video with Dr. Romanchuk has been viewed over 7,300 times, with over 216 shares on the Ukrainian Institute of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (UICBT) Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/UICBT/).
Readers may follow the Ukrainian-language online video series by visiting the “Week Five Productions” website (www.weekfiveproductions.com).
“Yana and I decided to call ourselves “Week Five Productions,” as the idea of this video series originated during the fifth week of quarantine due to COVID-19,” explained Ms. Luhovy, “We hope we can continue working together in the future.”