MSUPE Hosts Roundtable on Psychological Assistance for Families with Children in Historical and Border Regions of the Russian Federation

On June 24, a roundtable on "Best Practices for Providing Psychological Assistance to Families with Children in the Historical and Border Regions of the Russian Federation" was held at Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (MSUPE). The event was organized by the Section of the Council under the Government of the Russian Federation on Guardianship in the Social Sphere "Education and Upbringing" jointly with the Russian Ministry of Education, the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Russian Ministry of Health, and the Russian Ministry of Labor. Moderator – Vitaly Vladimirovich Rubtsov, President of MSUPE, Head of the Council's Section "Education and Upbringing", Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education (RAO).

Before the main discussion under the roundtable program, a ceremony was held to award specialists for organizing and providing emergency psychological assistance to participants in educational relations in connection with the emergency incident in the city of Starobelsk, Luhansk People's Republic (with departmental awards of the Russian Ministry of Education). From the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the awards were presented by the Director of the Department of State Policy for the Protection of Children's Rights, Larisa Pavlovna Falkovskaya.

The "For Mercy and Charity" (Za Miloserdie i Blagotvoritelnost) insignia was awarded to the Director of the LNR State Budgetary Educational Institution of Additional Education, Elena Vladimirovna Baraban – for her personal, material, and non-material participation in the development and practical implementation of support programs for socially vulnerable children and youth. Anna Valerievna Ermolaeva, Deputy Head of the Federal Coordination Center for Ensuring the Development of Psychological and Pedagogical Assistance in the Education System of the Russian Federation (FCC MSUPE), was awarded a Certificate of Honor from the Russian Ministry of Education. Among those also awarded were specialists from the Emergency Psychological Assistance Department of FCC MSUPE: O.Yu. Ledeneva, Ya.A. Onkham, and E.A. Loginova.

The President of MSUPE, Vitaly Vladimirovich Rubtsov, was presented with a Letter of Gratitude signed by the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, S.S. Kravtsov, for his many years of fruitful work and significant contribution to the development of psychological science and practice in the field of education.

Opening the discussion, V.V. Rubtsov noted the existing gap between the scale of the psychological consequences of war trauma and the capabilities of the current assistance system. He highlighted the following key issues:

• Low demand for help due to the absence of a unified information system;
• Staff shortages of educational psychologists in the new and border regions (average 43.2%, over 1,500 vacancies);
• Shortage of specialists to work with families.

The main goal of the roundtable was to discuss and select best practices of psychological assistance for their dissemination, since "...despite the dedicated work of teachers, psychologists, doctors, and volunteers, on the ground we still have a gap between the scale of the psychological consequences of war trauma and the capabilities of the current psychological assistance system." V.V. Rubtsov drew the participants' attention to the necessity and relevance of forming an open collection (registry) of best practices for providing psychological assistance to families with children in the historical and border regions of the Russian Federation.