B.C. veterans and counsellors planning trip to Ukraine to help treat PTSD

Surrey veterans and counsellors will be going to Ukraine to offer mental health and trauma support for civilians and soldiers.

One veteran with experience peacekeeping in Cyprus — Bob Sutherland — went through a veteran support program to deal with his trauma. Now he and other veterans from the Rotary Club of White Rock want to take this mental health support to Ukraine to help soldiers and civilians.

“I went through probably 40 years with PTSD. I was a nice guy — every once in a while, I wasn’t so nice. I didn’t beat my wife. My kids lived a safe life, but I was always on the edge.”

“This program, this concept, this idea will definitely give them a fighting chance during and after, because everyone will just bottom out after this conflict is over, and then they’ll need energy to rebuild and it won’t be there,” Allen Plett, another veteran joining Sutherland, added.

On Monday, the Rotary Club of White Rock and the University of British Columbia’s Veterans Education and Transition Program announced they hope to send a crew of five people to Ukraine as soon as they raise enough money.

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The crew of two veterans — Sutherland and Plett — two counsellors, and a security guard will help train Ukrainian doctors to deal with patient trauma from the ongoing war with Russia, a program developed by experts at UBC.

“We know that chronic level stress, the impact it can have by having people shut down their emotions, go into survival mode,” said Tim Laidler, executive director of the Institute for Veterans Education and Transition.

“When that happens long-term and there isn’t a chance to decompress and transition back into family life when you’re trying to talk to your kids, that can cause a lot of the problems we see that get labeled as PTSD.”

Sutherland says the same program they’ll be bringing to Ukraine taught him to forgive himself, and he hopes it will help soldiers and the Ukrainian public heal.

“I know firsthand what generational trauma will do to families … if we can hit the first generation, it’s going to nullify that impact on future generations.”

The team says they plan to be in Ukraine for three years and will let locals and Kyiv’s rotary club take over from there.