“You will be forgotten like the afghan vererans”: assessing the social support system for the Russian-Ukrainian war veterans
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.23.4.6Keywords:
veterans, social support, reintegration, Russian-Ukrainian war, systemic approach, problems of veterans, Ukrainian society, politics of memoryAbstract
Modern social work in Ukraine faces the challenges of successful reintegration of veterans returning to civilian life after participating in the Russian-Ukrainian war. The paper presents the results of a study conducted in the fall of 2023 with the aim of identifying the features of social support for members of the veteran community of Ukraine who returned to civilian life after participating in the Russian-Ukrainian war through the lens of the theoretical construct of the systemic approach of social work - the "change agent system". A change agent system, if effective and targeted to the needs of the client, can play an important role in providing veterans with appropriate support resources and services. During the research, 15 veterans (11 men and 4 women) and 15 representatives of support service providers from the state and public sector of social support and from the international support system of three regions of Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Lviv oblasts) were interviewed. The study revealed a wide range of needs related to the veteran experience: the need for restorative medicine and rehabilitation, socio-psychological support, financial capacity and engagement of the veteran's civilian capital (education, employment), loss of identity and change of values, desire for recognition and memorialization of their contribution to national security. Veterans perceive the existing system of social support as forced and fragmented, unresponsive to their individual needs, and social support providers recognize deficiencies in resource provision and professional qualifications. Both groups of respondents expressed their views on the ways of developing the system of social support for veterans and strengthening the policy of memory. Recommendations from the study include systemic reform and the use of veteran experience to develop preventive support policies, and the findings emphasize the need for a systemic change to improve social support for veterans through the ecological application of veteran experience and the participation of the veteran community in decision-making processes regarding their well-being.References
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