Report on the mental health protection of both professionals working with SGBV victims and the victims among migrant population in Serbia

On the occa­sion of the Inter­na­ti­o­nal Migrants Day, which is marked on Decem­ber 18, the day when the United Nati­ons Gene­ral Assembly adop­ted the Inter­na­ti­o­nal Conven­tion on the Protec­tion of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of Their Fami­lies in 1990, Atina presen­ted the results of the Report on the mental health protec­tion of both profes­si­o­nals working with SGBV victims and the victims among the migrant popu­la­tion in Serbia.

A rese­arch on the mental health of profes­si­o­nals, which encom­pas­sed 31 repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­ti­ons, inter­na­ti­o­nal orga­ni­za­ti­ons and public insti­tu­ti­ons, as well as refu­gee and migrant women them­sel­ves, found that women and girls are at higher risk of gender-based violence than other migrants (100% of respon­dents), and that the cultu­ral context signi­fi­cantly deter­mi­nes the beha­vior of refu­gee women and directs work with them. Esta­blis­hing a rela­ti­ons­hip of trust with persons from this popu­la­tion who have survi­ved sexual and gender-based violence has been recog­ni­zed as one of the grea­test challen­ges front­line workers face. On the other hand, the most common conse­quen­ces of violence in this group are depres­sion and suici­dal thoughts (22% of respon­dents), trau­ma­tic symp­toms (15% of respon­dents), lack of trust (10%), and soma­tic symp­toms (9%). Regar­ding the mental health of front­line workers, the analy­sis showed that almost 80% of profes­si­o­nals did not attend any trai­ning on mental health, while only one orga­ni­za­tion that parti­ci­pa­ted in the rese­arch has support for its employees in the form of regu­lar psycho­lo­gi­cal super­vi­sion. When it comes to avai­la­ble servi­ces for refu­gee and migrant women, 70% of them stated that they made their first contact with service provi­ders in recep­tion and asylum centers, while they rated their satis­fac­tion with the recei­ved servi­ces with an average score of 4.48. As much as 65% of them beli­eve that the most impor­tant impro­ve­ment is needed in provi­ding legal support for women who have suffe­red gender-based violence. Spea­king about plan­ning for the future, almost half of the respon­dents (48.4%) said that they need to know their rights in the country they are resi­ding in order to make any plans, while 32% of them think that repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of NGOs can help them with that – at the same time, they recog­nize the respon­si­bi­lity for provi­ding infor­ma­tion as an obli­ga­tion of state insti­tu­ti­ons.

The analy­sis was crea­ted within the Euro­pean project WeToo – Protec­ting mental health: Empo­we­ring front­line workers and SGBV victims and survi­vors. This project is imple­men­ted in Italy (Oxfam Italia Inter­cul­tura and NGO Alice), Greece (KMOP – Social Action and Inno­va­tion Center), Serbia (NGO Atina), Germany (INTE­GRA e.V.) and Bulga­ria (Asso­ci­a­tion Animus), and is funded by the Rights, Equa­lity and Citi­zens­hip (REC) Programme of the Euro­pean Union. Each country deve­lo­ped its own analy­sis on the exis­ting poli­cies and prac­ti­ces regar­ding the care of profes­si­o­nals in direct contact with the victims. The analy­ses also include expe­ri­en­ces of women victims of violence. A trans­na­ti­o­nal report has also been prepa­red, summa­ri­zing the findings from nati­o­nal analy­ses.

The aim of the project is to enable front­line workers who come into contact with victims of SGBV (police, health and social workers, coun­se­lors on SOS hotli­nes, key stake­hol­ders) to cope with secon­dary trauma, as well as to provide support to victims in the reco­very from trauma. The project has its own website where you can be infor­med of the ongoing acti­vi­ties: www.weto­o­pro­ject.eu.