The specifics of psychological work with participants of the SMO and their family members at the S. S. Karatai Republican Rehabilitation Center of the RT EMERCOM

The situation of military operations, which poses a threat to life and health, is extreme for humans and requires complex adaptation. This applies to both the participants of the SMO and their family members. Therefore, almost all participants inevitably experience negative changes in their physical and mental state, as well as in the level and quality of social activity.

More than 100 participants of the special operation have already been rehabilitated at the republican rehabilitation center. During the initial psychological counseling, a fighter has an untidy appearance, sweeping movements, a sudden change of mood, increased alertness and irritability, categorical statements, and avoidance of eye and speech contact, passivity in dialogue, lethargy, etc. Many of them abuse alcohol after returning from military operations to numb the pain and those the memories that keep coming back to them.
This also happens because the returning fighter has lost faith in the importance of his social role in peacetime, feels a sense of confusion – "if I'm not a warrior, then who is?". Many people cannot find the answer to this question and again seek to leave to fight.

You can often hear from them that "you'll never understand us because you weren't there."…
Guilt is a frequent companion of the psychological state of a participant undergoing rehabilitation at the Center. I am guilty for not being able to help, tell, protect, and save my colleague in time.

For more than three years, psychological work has been carried out with the participants of the SMO in the Center. As practice shows, many families of SMO participants need psychological support and counseling, as a long period of SMO significantly changes the psychological state of the family. The emotional and psychological state of a woman is changing against the background of constant anxiety, and socially she receives an additional burden.
From 2022 to 2025, more than 40 parents and widows of deceased members of the SMO underwent rehabilitation at the Center.