Today, on April 5, a round-table conference “Present-day influence of social networks on mental health of children and teenagers” takes place in the Vremia media centre. The participants – the representatives of the authorities, specialized state institutions, NGOs and mass media – discuss the increase of the number of adolescent suicides in the context of spreading of online games with suicidal tendencies on social networks and the methods of resistance to this threat. The event is carried out under the auspices of the International Charitable Foundation “Oleksandr Feldman Foundation,” the psychotherapy department of Kharkiv Medical Academy of Post-graduate Education under the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, and the National League of Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Medical Psychology.
“The urgency of this round table is stipulated by more frequent suicides among children and teenagers in Ukraine, and by the increase of popularity of the online game called Blue Whale and so-called ‘death societies’ in the Internet,” the meeting moderator, the head of the psychotherapy department of KhMAPE, the head of the Feldman Ecopark Centre of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Borys Mykhailov stated in the beginning of the discussion. He noted that this problem became vital in connection with the tendencies of the increasing aggressiveness of social networks. “One of the responses to this aggression is a suicide,” the expert summed up.
“Our task is to offer efficient preventive measures. It is impossible to resist the threat of the Blue Whale and death societies only by prohibitions and control: it is necessary to provide a child with life-asserting alternative. It is necessary to have a complex strategy at the regional and national levels. The Feldman Ecopark Centre of Psychosocial Rehabilitation offers own resources and experience for its development and implementation,” the director of the ICF “Oleksandr Feldman Foundation” Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Feldman commented on the opening of the round-table conference.
The discussion of the issue of children’s and adolescent suicidal behaviour was attended by the representatives of the Department of Health and Social Protection, the Department of Health Protection under the Kharkiv City Council, the Department of Science and Education under Kharkiv Regional State Administration, the Regional Administration of Health Protection, “Kharkiv Regional Youth Centre,” Kharkiv Regional Centre of Social Services for Family, Children and Youth, the state institution “Institute of Health Protection of Children and Adolescents under the NAMS of Ukraine,” Kharkiv Regional Student’s Hospital, Institute of Neurology, Psychiatry and Narcology under the NAMS of Ukraine, the Northeastern Interregional Administration for criminal penalty and probation execution under the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the sector of juvenile probation of the city of Kharkiv, the department of juvenile prevention of the Main Administration of the National Police in Kharkiv oblast, Kharkiv Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital, Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital No.1, and Kharkiv Academy of Continuous Education.
The meeting moderators: the head of the head of the psychotherapy department of KhMAPE, the head of the Feldman Ecopark Centre of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Borys Mykhailov, the heads of the services of the Feldman Ecopark Centre of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Tetiana Aliieva and Inna Vashkite.
