Lilit Baghdasaryan: "Healthy Society" Forum allowed Armenia to share its experience in psychology and psychiatry with the specialists from all over the CIS"

The "Healthy Society" International Forum was held once again this spring in St. Petersburg. One of the sessions of the Forum was dedicated to population mental health and Lilit Baghdasaryan, Member of the Executive Committee of the Armenian Psychiatric Association, spoke at it. In this interview she tells how the Forum helped unite psychologists from Armenia and Russia.

- Lilit Varazdatovna, the "Healthy Society" Forum was held on March 23-24 and, as far as we know, in just a few months it contributed to strengthening contacts between Armenian specialists in the field of psychology and psychiatry and their colleagues from other CIS countries.

- Yes, because the Forum was very fruitful. It is good that special attention was paid to population mental health. This is important for the entire CIS, because if an individual suffers from mental disorder, it affects not only his quality of life, but also impacts the lifes of his relatives. So this is a very large-scale problem, but mental disorders can be prevented through timely diagnosis. Therefore, it was important for us, as representatives of professional community, to share our experiences and discuss ways to communicate the importance of seeking psychiatric help. Indeed, in all CIS countries, people resort to it in extreme cases.

Sharing experience enriches the whole CIS as we see many points of contact. Firstly, we have a common history, secondly, we have similar economic platforms, thirdly, we had common schools of psychiatry and psychology, and now each country has developed its own rich theoretical and practical experience based on them. It is important not to lose this heritage and to share it. For example, I was interested to listen to specialists from Kyrgyzstan, where there are mobile patient support groups.

- What practices did you share during the Forum? You are engaged in psychosocial rehabilitation of people who have suffered loss, right?

- Yes, I am a practicing psychologist. In the early 2000s I worked as a psychologist in the first Day-care center in Armenia, which was engaged in social rehabilitation of people with long-term mental health problems. In 2009 I defended my PhD thesis and started teaching at the Armenian Pedagogical University named after Khachatur Abovyan. Today, I also head the Armenian Analytical Center for Suicide Prevention "Antisuicide" and teach at the Department of Personality Psychology at Yerevan State University. And in 2015, I launched “Recovery” program in Armenia, aimed at helping people facing various mental disorders or injuries. I also head the first "Recovery College" in the region, which trains specialists in this program.

However, the fact is that all the projects I have been involved in since 2020 have in one way or another dealt with people who have faced the loss of loved ones. Often people are left alone with their experiences at this moment, it seems to them that they do not find understanding, they feel lonely. And a few years ago I decided to adapt "Recovery" to help people during grief experience. It was about this project that I told the Forum.

- Were you prompted to this idea by the Karabakh events?

- Yes, because victims’ families needed psychological help. According to the concept of the program, a person facing a loss acts not as a patient, but rather as a student. Working with program specialists, he or she shares his or her experience of grief. There are also peer counselors in the project: these are strong wives and mothers who were able to overcome the loss of their husband or son and are ready to help others. It is important when a person who has lost someone close to him or her can discuss his or her feelings with someone who has already gone through it and managed to return to normal life. That is, peer counselors show the subjective side of the problem.

- What was the response to your practice?

- Some regions of Russia were interested in our program. Right after the Forum, we had an online meeting with specialists from Yakutia. They were attracted by our model of bereavement recovery and would like to implement it there. In addition, we have already been visited by colleagues from Moscow, who were also present at the Forum. On June 8-10, the International Psychiatric Congress will be held in Yerevan, and we will be glad to see our colleagues from the Forum.