To never leave a journalist alone in the search for help
Mental Support for Media brings together the media community and mental health professionals so that journalists and editorial offices are not left alone in seeking help.
Assistance should take into account the specifics of a journalist's work
It is hard to advise Ukrainian journalists to "simply disconnect from the news." News is their job, and since the full-scale invasion, it has also become a part of everyday life. Reporters go to the sites of shelling, collecting and covering testimonies of losses. Photographers, editors, and fact-checkers repeatedly review heavy footage, while editors are responsible for both the material and the people working on it.
Ukrainian journalists cover the war, which is part of their daily lives.
Even when a person realizes they need support, they still have to find a specialist they can trust; figure out the difference between a psychological consultation, psychotherapy, and psychiatric help; schedule a meeting; and figure out what to do next. For an editorial office, the task is even more complex: they need to take care of the entire team while avoiding intrusion into employees' personal requests.
As a result of these very challenges, the Mental Support for Media (MSM) program grew. In early 2023, the Souspilnist Foundation and the Braincult Center for Development and Psychotherapy combined their previous experience working with the media into a comprehensive support program. The team ensured that caring for mental health became a regular part of editorial life rather than a belated reaction to burnout or serious psychological difficulties.
Two communities around one request
MSM operates at the intersection of two professional environments. On one side are psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists who are familiar with the specifics of media work. They understand that exposure to the news is often inevitable for a journalist, yet they help single out risks that can be mitigated: excessive workload, lack of rotation after difficult assignments, or constant exposure to traumatic content without time for recovery.
No single specialist can work equally well with all types of requests. Therefore, developing a community of mental health professionals who possess diverse competencies, can collaborate during the support process, and at the same time understand the specifics of a journalist's work is one of the key factors for the effectiveness and sustainability of a mental health care culture in the media. It is also important that after discussions about war, violence, and loss, the specialists themselves need support. Thus, developing the community is not only about reaching a certain circle of experts, but also about supporting and growing it through regular supervision and intervision meetings, training, research, and recovery events.
"The quality of support depends not only on the competence of an individual specialist, but also on a community that knows how to interact," notes Anastasiia Nizhnik, co-founder of the BrainCult Center.
On the other side is the community of journalists, editors, and media owners. A person's willingness to seek help often depends on their reaction. A leader who views exhaustion as weakness only amplifies fear; a leader who suggests a pause, explains available options, and does not demand a retelling of the consultation makes seeking help normal and safe. Similarly, a colleague can share what the first meeting is like or how they chose their therapist, without trying to "heal" others themselves.
The role of MSM is to connect these two environments: media professionals and mental health specialists. Journalists gain access to experts who understand the professional risks of media work, rely on evidence-based approaches, and tailor help to the individual's request and condition, while editors do not need to vet dozens of psychologists on their own or invent a support program for the team.
The importance of this bridging work lies in transforming individual specialists and formats into a cohesive support system. Needs assessment, training, individual assistance, and recovery complement one another, providing the person with a clear path and, if necessary, the ability to transition to another level of help. For an editorial office, this means not only the ability to respond to crisis situations, but also the steady development of a culture of mental health care within the team.
What does the editorial support path look like in practice?
MSM has four components: assessment and needs evaluation, training, individual assistance, and recovery. They do not form a mandatory sequence. Someone might immediately come with a request for psychotherapy, another person first needs to figure out their own condition, and an editorial office may start with a team assessment and a conversation with managers.
During the assessment, specialists use clinical interviews and screening questionnaires that help gauge symptom severity and decide whether an additional consultation is needed. Screening is not a diagnosis and says nothing about a person's professional suitability. When it comes to an editorial office, at the initial stage, the MSM team prepares a report for managers on team needs and risks: the manager receives only generalized conclusions and has no access to individual employees' answers or the content of their conversations. Specific employee requests are addressed by specialists during individual meetings, taking into account the person's condition, professional role, and the specifics of their work. These requests can cover a wide range of issues, including anxiety, exhaustion, sleep and concentration difficulties, coping with loss or contact with traumatic material, guilt over resting, or difficulties recovering after a dangerous assignment.
90% of the journalists surveyed had signs of burnout, 93% had symptoms of depression of varying levels, and 85% had signs of excessive anxiety.
The scale of the need is evident from the program's own data. As of September 2026, the team had analyzed data from 1,007 individuals. Signs of burnout were found in 90% of those surveyed, symptoms of depression of varying degrees in 93%, and signs of anxiety in 85%. The presence of traumatic experience was reported by 62.7% of respondents; moreover, the majority of them continued to experience intrusive memories of these events, which may indicate PTSD. For the MSM team, these results became another confirmation that support must be available not only at the moment of acute crisis. The earlier a person understands their condition and sees possible next steps, the less time they spend searching for help at random.
The educational part of the program also depends on the participant's role. Journalists learn to recognize their own reactions, work with sensitive topics, and avoid substituting peer support for professional help. Editors, on the other hand, need knowledge that can be applied in management: how to spot overload, plan rotation after a difficult assignment, discuss an employee's condition without pressure, and maintain the confidentiality of their request.
When individual help is needed, the format is tailored to the person's request and condition. Sometimes an initial consultation with a psychologist is enough to figure out the situation and make a further plan; longer-lasting difficulties may require psychotherapy, while clinical symptoms or risks may call for a psychiatric evaluation and, as indicated, treatment. During the support process, the format of help can be revised according to the person's needs and condition, and—if necessary—recommendations can be made to see a specialist of another specialization.
The MSM team does not limit itself to counting the consultations conducted, but tracks changes in participants' conditions during the support process. According to program data gathered in 2026, positive dynamics were recorded across several indicators: depression symptoms decreased in 83% of participants, anxiety levels in 77%, and emotional exhaustion and professional burnout symptoms in 73%. Behind these metrics lie changes in the everyday lives of specific individuals: more energy for work, communication with loved ones, and participation in team life.
A special place in the program is held by recovery trips to the Carpathians. A few days outside the usual working environment allow journalists to slow down, step away from the constant flow of news, and reconnect with their own needs. The program for such trips combines leisure, communication within a professional circle, and recovery practices guided by psychologists. They do not erase the difficult experience of war, but they create conditions in which one can calm anxious thoughts, feel supported, and gradually restore inner resources.
Mental Health Evenings offer a shorter and more accessible format for such a pause. These are thematic meetings for journalists where communication with colleagues is combined with self-compassion practices, working with the inner critic, finding one's own sources of support, or creative activities. Even over the course of a single evening, participants can shift their attention from deadlines and professional demands to their own condition and increase their resources.
Since 2023, over 250 journalists have participated in eleven recovery events in the Carpathians; the team has also held nine Mental Health Evenings. Participation in such meetings does not obligate a person to talk about what they have lived through, and the event itself does not replace therapy or psychiatric care. At the same time, these events create a space for recovery, communication with colleagues, and mutual support. Even a brief pause helps to step out of the intense news cycle for a time, pay attention to one's own state, and understand what kind of support a person needs next.
What Changes for Media Outlets?
Typically, an editorial team reaches out not with a ready-made list of needs, but with a vague sense that the team is exhausted: people are sleeping worse, conflicting more often, losing focus, or even leaving the profession altogether. The MSM coordinator helps break down this request into areas concerning working conditions, team interaction, and the personal well-being of individual employees.
Following this, the editorial office can undergo an assessment, organize training for managers, and give employees the opportunity to confidentially seek individual help. For some, a specialist will recommend a few consultations; for others, longer-term psychotherapy or a meeting with a psychiatrist. Meanwhile, the editor does not receive the content of personal conversations or specific test answers.
At the Kramatorsk Post editorial office, the team utilized several support formats: individual consultations, webinars, and a recovery event. According to financial and project manager Liudmyla Sakhno, the consultations provided colleagues with a comfortable and safe space, the webinars helped them better understand their own stress responses, and the retreat allowed them to breathe out, recharge, and connect with representatives from other media outlets.
According to MSM's 2026 data, various psychological support program opportunities have been used by over 2,500 journalists, with more than 700 receiving psychotherapeutic support, and the work overall has reached over 70 editorial offices.
You can start simple
Even well-organized psychological support cannot compensate for chronic exhaustion, hazardous assignments without preparation, or dismissive leadership. The editorial office itself is responsible for schedules, workload, physical safety, and the rules for working with traumatic content. MSM can help identify risks, determine team needs, train managers, and organize professional support, but management decisions ultimately remain the responsibility of the editorial office.
You can start simply: ask the team about their needs, conduct a confidential assessment, and agree on a clear procedure for seeking help. The next step is to review what the editorial office can change on its own: workload, opportunities for rest, rotation after difficult assignments, and the rules for handling traumatic materials.
At the same time, editorial offices do not need to build the entire system from scratch or search for specialists entirely on their own. Existing professional communities can help with needs assessment, training, individual consultations, and recovery events. Some of these opportunities are available through partner funding, while editorial offices can allocate their own resources for long-term support.
This is how individual solutions gradually come together into a system: employees know where to turn, managers understand the limits of their responsibility, and the editorial office has a professional partner to help sustain this process.
"Supporting the mental health of journalists helps editorial offices maintain their capacity to work during the war, retain professional teams, and continue covering complex topics. In a broader sense, it is about preserving society's access to reliable information, which is one of the essential conditions for freedom of speech and democracy," notes Andrii Sydorenko, coordinator of the Mental Support for Media program.
You can learn about available formats for journalists and editorial offices at support4media.com.
The article was prepared by Anton Pokalyukhin, a psychologist and specialist of the Mental Support for Media program.