How the Third Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen in Kyiv went
For the third time, Kyiv hosted the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, an international dialogue platform founded by the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, in 2021. This year, the guests talked about mental health and its impact on the lives of states, families, and individuals. Wars, economic crises, pandemics and natural disasters do not allow people worldwide to feel protected – increasing anxiety increases depression and suicide cases, even in outwardly stable countries. We will tell you how the Third Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen went.
Stainability shapes our values
"As you know, today we will talk about mental health. And the ability to feel gratitude is one of the components of our mental health. It is gratitude, according to the results of the latest scientific studies on the study of stress and its consequences, that is recognised as the main productive factor, which reduces the impact of stress on a person's mental health," the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, who this year invited guests from all over the world to Kyiv, began the Summit.
First ladies and gentlemen from Lithuania, Slovakia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Slovenia and Armenia shared their experiences working with mental health in their countries and the problems that must be solved. For example, the first lady of Estonia, Siria Karis, noted that she started her work in this position by studying the statistics of the number of suicides, which are a big problem for her country. The first lady of the Czech Republic, Eva Pavlova, talked about the organisation of work between mentor psychologists and school students. The first gentleman of Slovenia, Dr Alesh Musar, mentioned how important it is to help people during military operations and recall the 70,000 refugees who once came to his country from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Statistics confirm their words. Especially for the forum, the company AlligatorsSolutions conducted research on the topic of mental health in 11 countries of the world.
One of the most interesting conclusions made by the researchers is that every second person in the world feels the impact of the war in Ukraine today, and people who have personally experienced the upheaval have more stable mental health. And Ukrainians confirm this from their own experience. So, the actor Sean Penn, who participated in the discussion of cultural figures at the MentalStage location, shared his impressions of the character of Ukrainians: "I have never seen such resilience anywhere. I observe the challenges that Ukrainians face in the search for freedom and independence, and I am delighted. Perhaps, through the experiences of previous generations, you have developed a DNA that allows your people to become great when they need to be. And you become great."
During her speech, Olena Zelenska also spoke about the resilience of Ukrainians, which is formed thanks to our values. "Psychological stability is the ability to pass through trials. The personal stability of each person forms the stability of society. Through a person – to the family, from the family to the community. And so to the entire country. Therefore, there is no more strategically important task for the state than creating conditions for the stability of each person. I am sure that true stability begins with the awareness of common values – I am proud that Ukraine today demonstrates to the world what people united by a common value are capable of. The basis of our value is human life, and the basis of human life is always in the first place is love. And the secret of our stability is in love. In love for our children, parents, loved ones, friends, our home, street, village, city, country, our work and dreams. Love gives us the strength to fight, to keep our weapons, endure, wait, suffer and not break."
Uniting to save the world
The goal of each Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen is not only to discuss socially essential topics that do not have geographical boundaries but also to obtain a practical result. For example, last year, with the help of caring people from all over the world, it was possible to collect more than 6 million dollars, and this made it possible to purchase 92 modern resuscitation vehicles, which are currently saving the lives of Ukrainians. This year, the main result of the Summit was the establishment of a network of medical partnerships between countries.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also emphasised partnership and support in his speech: "Today I am here on behalf of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden – and I want to clearly say to the Ukrainian people: just as mental health matters in this war, our efforts will also be aimed at healing your wounds caused by war. The United States is committed to the future of Ukraine, to peace in Ukraine, to strengthening Ukraine not only militarily, but also in terms of its democracy, economy and health."
Impact of stress on human health
A separate discussion at the Summit was devoted to the impact of mental problems on a person's physical condition. Thus, the Ukrainian pathophysiologist and geneticist Viktor Dosenko noted: "Stress hormones allow us to survive incredible trials. It is important to remember that from now on, in Ukraine. Some people will live in chronic stress, leading to metabolic changes in the body and various diseases. Also, such prolonged post-traumatic stress triggers ageing mechanisms in the body earlier than expected. Doctors predict increased diagnoses such as arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disorders, common in the elderly but not in the younger".
Experts also noted how important it is for people not to be afraid to ask themselves questions, not to hide from them and not to be scared to ask for help – working with stress and overcoming it helps to prevent many problems in the body in the future. The "How are you?" program, initiated by Olena Zelenska, was created precisely to start this dialogue. "You need to ask appropriate questions. You can often see psychological trauma by talking to a patient," adds Dosenko, who, in particular, talked about a simple but effective self-questioning system of five questions that will help a person understand whether he needs help or not.
All for the sake of the children
Another important topic at the Summit was the support of the younger generation, which sees the war around them in a completely different way and experiences this stress when psychological stability is only being formed. Statistics show that young people aged 18 to 24 rate their mental health the lowest, but at the same time, they offer the most incredible resilience and optimism about the future. They also avoid talking to specialists about their psychological state due to shame and fear that it may affect their reputation. Among the solutions proposed by the experts are more live communication, the development of personal hobbies, sports, and travel.
And it was possible to see how modern Ukrainian teenagers live and what they feel, thanks to director Antonio Lukich, who shot the short documentary "How I spent my summer". It ended again with statistics: due to Russian aggression, 3,389 schools were damaged, 361 educational institutions were destroyed, and many Ukrainian children met their first September in shelters and already know from childhood what true resilience is.
Among the guests of the Third Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen in Kyiv were many foreign guests as well as Ukrainian ones — in particular, volunteer Tata Kepler, singer Tina Karol, Ukrainian defender Rusya Danilkina, Olga Rudneva from Superhumans, photographers Kostyantyn and Vlada Liberovy.
