Hello, save our souls!

A free 24-hour psychological rescue service will appear in Moscow

Telephone psychological assistance in big cities has long become a necessary social service. In Moscow, there are also several paid and free psychological services where you can get expert advice over the phone. However, almost all of them work only during the daytime and have long seven-digit numbers that are not easy to remember in a critical situation. The Moscow authorities have decided to offer Muscovites a simple and round-the-clock rescue phone: from October 16, the municipality is launching a multi-channel emergency psychological help number 051, which will work 24 hours a day.

Chairman of the Moscow Committee for Family and Youth Affairs Oleg Pilshchikov believes that psychological support services are fairly well organized in education, healthcare, the department of social protection and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, but only those who are somehow involved in these areas go there. “And the practice of the state institution “Moscow Psychological Assistance Service to the Population”, created immediately after the tragedy on Dubrovka in 2003, shows that Muscovites have many problems not related to rehabilitation after emergency situations,” he told reporters, “therefore the committee is determined to expand the work of the service "

According to the director of the Moscow Service for Psychological Assistance to the Population, Antonina Lyashchenko, one third of those who turn to the service for help come here with family problems. These clients, she says, experience stress and depression after divorce, loss of a loved one or family conflicts. In addition, psychologists state that in our time, the problem of fathers and children is in second place. “All our specialists diagnose that aggressiveness and lack of tolerance extend to relationships with close relatives and children,” said Ms. Lyashchenko, “and families continue to face differences in ideas and principles of different generations.” About 20% of clients turn to municipal psychologists with these problems. Another 8-10% come with depression, phobias, anxieties, fears and other symptoms of psychological health problems. And often, according to Antonina Lyashchenko, it is necessary to diagnose an already developing mental disorder in clients of this category and refer them to the appropriate specialist.

She believes that in the psychological stress of a big city, the capital risks losing the color of society, since the majority of educated, experienced citizens turn to specialists. In addition, as a rule, men who are not inclined to go to an appointment even with a regular therapist are left out of face-to-face psychological rates, says Valery Shatilo, the head of the “emergency psychological help phone” project. “On the telephone, the situation with clients is somewhat different; if predominantly women call the service, then 23% of callers are men,” he clarified. According to him, psychological problems tend to worsen at night, when there is no one to turn to. Therefore, the city authorities decided to open a three-digit, 24-hour emergency psychological help line, which will add to the list of numbers of the main emergency services.

“This will be another service, along with the police, ambulance and Ministry of Emergency Situations, where citizens can turn for free for appropriate help,” said Antonina Lyashchenko, “as they explained to us at the Moscow City Telephone Network, soon all two-digit numbers will be converted to three-digit numbers.” This year, the city budget spent 9.5 million rubles on the creation of a new six-channel rescue service. Next year, according to Mr. Pilshchikov, from 5 to 10 million rubles will be spent: if the popularity of emergency psychological assistance grows, then both the number of telephone channels and the staff of psychologists will have to be expanded.

For now, 40 specialists will work on the telephone in five shifts. But municipal psychologists and officials are confident that the new service will not be limited to this, since more than a thousand calls are received on the regular telephone number of the Moscow psychological assistance service in just one day. And this work is very difficult: the psychologist spends on average about 40 minutes on each call and at the same time is limited in the ability to obtain more complete information about the client. As a result, rapid professional “burnout” occurs, and the specialist requires restoration. In addition, together with psychologists, city officials plan to increase the number of branches of the Moscow psychological assistance service from six to ten, create a mobile unit based on one of the city bus depots, and develop a city law on psychological assistance by next year.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO