REPORTAGE FROM BULGARIA | YANITA GEORGIEVA
YOUTH RED CROSS TAKES MATTERS INTO ITS OWN HANDS
Despite the lack of mental health initiatives in schools, the Youth Red Cross is pushing psychological first aid to the top of its agenda.
A line of people in bright red vests and heavy backpacks are waiting at the door of the Youth Red Cross in Varna. Their coach Victoriya mouths that they have ten seconds to go. They tuck their white scarves to the side, take out their notebooks and burst through the door.
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Their job is to rush inside and give first aid to whoever needs it, but no one is physically hurt. In this simulated disaster, teenagers are pretending to be kids that have just gone through a flood and can’t find their parents.
Some of them are apathetic, others are distraught, and the rest are crying. Instead of giving CPR, the team takes out different toys from their backpacks, hands out tissues and tries to get the kids to spell out their names.
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In a country where the topic of mental illness is never even brought up in a classroom, psychological first aid is a leap forward. This initiative was founded by the youth and for the youth, and teenagers across the country are signing up to learn it.
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“It’s great to know that through our work, we’re able to help people step back on their feet after disasters of traumatic events,” says 17-year-old team leader Sevdalina Shiderova. “No one taught us how to do this at school, which is one of the reasons why I signed up to do this in the first place.”
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BREAKING THE MOULD
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When the wave of refugees first made its way to Bulgaria four years ago, the Red Cross was stumped. People were looking for support in dealing with stress and trauma, but at the time, the only help they could offer was physical.
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The Youth branch of the Red Cross caught on. In 2012, they introduced psychological first aid into their winter academies where volunteers were taught how to support people after natural disasters. Today, this training is part of first aid across the country.
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“I definitely would not have known how to treat people after traumatic events if it wasn’t for this training,” says Victoriya Tsvetelinova who was one of the volunteers at the first psychological aid course. At 19, she is the first person to have worked her way up from a volunteer to a national coach in just four years.
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Victoriya points to a picture of herself in the Psycho-social first aid manual.
“People who haven’t been trained often make the mistake of giving advice, talking over the other person or speaking more than they should. In reality, you need to learn how to put people at ease so they can actually share and talk about their problems, but come up with solutions on their own.
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“One of the most important things we teach is never to stop people from crying. Our instinct is to stop their flow of emotions, but if they internalise them, at one point it will all be brought up to the surface and become even worse.”
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WHY THE YOUTH?
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Considering the lack of lessons, seminars or groups talking about mental health at schools, the natural question to ask is where this youth initiative comes from.
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Psychologists argue that many factors play into this. Alongside being more open to new concepts, the younger generation now has an alternative means of getting information – the internet – and is taking it by the handful.
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Psychologist Martina Kojuharova calls this generation of Bulgarians “brilliant and hungry for information.”
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“The internet is supplying so much to those looking for information – from seminars and workshops to the mass amounts of literature that has been translated to Bulgarian. Our kids are constantly looking for creative solutions to the system in the country and working on their self awareness and growth.”
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THEY DON'T TEACH THIS IN SCHOOL
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As a coach, Victoriya Tsvetelinova now has the job of preparing students for national Red Cross competitions. Their meetings are intensive and often run up to 10 o’clock at night. When she asks her students if they need to leave early to catch the last bus, they say they’re used to sprinting after meetings and can probably make it there in time.
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Their motivation is impenetrable. They jump from reacting to an earthquake to being children whose parents haven’t picked them up from school, and their performance is scrutinised. Did you forget to ask the child to write down his name? Was your tone of voice condescending to their emotions? Victoriya says the competitions are fierce and they could get graded down for anything, so she has to make sure their reactions are textbook perfect.
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Most scenarios revolve around natural disasters, but the skills are transferrable to putting people at ease after any stressful event. Their focus is on helping people talk about their problems and teaching them how to share, which is lacking in a society that puts focus on dealing with problems on your own.
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“Bulgarians still consider it shameful to talk about their feelings or mention that they are seeing a therapist,” adds Victoriya. “Very few people talk about their problems because they feel like they need to deal with them on their own, even through self-medication.”
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That, combined with the lack of any mental health training or initiatives at schools, makes this training a beam of hope for improved mental health awareness at a young age.
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Every school in the country has a resident pedagogue available for support. But most students admit to never speaking to them out of fear that their classmates will find out, which, in small schools, they often do. In this search for someone to speak to, Victoriya insists the Red Cross is there for anyone who needs them.
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“Anyone can turn to us, including the volunteers themselves. At times when I’ve recognised the symptoms in people at school, I have tried to refer them to the Red Cross after I haven’t managed to help them on my own.
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"There is nothing shameful in asking for help.”
