Challenges of psychosocial support of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the challenges involved in providing psychosocial support to Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic following the unprecedented influx of people displaced by the war in Ukraine. In 2022, more than 473,000 Ukrainian refugees, predominantly women and children, were granted temporary protection in the Czech Republic. This sudden influx created an urgent need for psychosocial services in a country with limited previous experience in supporting large refugee populations. Similar challenges have emerged across other post-communist countries in Central Europe, whose populations remained relatively homogeneous after World War II and which, even after the fall of communism, largely functioned as transit rather than destination countries for migrants and refugees. The article examines the mental health and psychosocial consequences of war and forced displacement, with particular attention to the roles of language, culture, and mental health stigma in the assessment of psychological difficulties and the planning
of interventions. It further discusses the development of appropriate, culturally sensitive mental
health and psychosocial services, including interventions delivered within refugees’ natural and community environments, with the aim of promoting social integration and mutual understanding.
Particular attention is given to the Czech Republic as a country shaped by its own totalitarian past and by unresolved collective and societal traumas. In addition to reviewing the international literature, the article draws on the author’s clinical and psychosocial work with Ukrainian refugees in community settings in the Czech Republic between 2022 and 2023.