A psychological support facility has opened at Polyus’ Natalka mine. Olga Korotkevich, an experienced psychologist, started working at the centre in August, and since then she has been providing counseling on various issues, including crisis counseling, which comprises psychological support for people in critical life-changing situations. There is also family counseling on offer, which helps people to deal with issues related to marital and parent-child relationships.
Another service the facility provides is conflict resolution counseling, as well as an analysis of individual common features, which help to identify the strengths and weaknesses in people’s personality traits. This helps to set out a personal and professional growth path for employees. Olga has received many requests for individual and group consultations as well as mindset training.
In response to a question about the work she does as a psychologist, Olga commented:“Only physically and mentally strong people can work on mining shifts. However, even the strongest people face situations where they need some support or an alternative view regarding a specific problem. It is particularly important to maintain a good psychological balance between an employee’s family during and after a shift in order to build strong relationships with their children, while counselling also helps employees to learn the correct approach to resolving conflicts within a team, as well as helping to cope with emotional burnout and stress.”
Olga emphasized the importance of not confusing a psychologist with a mental health professional, and stated that people should feel free to ask for help:“A psychologist’s job is to guide and support a person in becoming successful while also being mentally healthy, because our physical health depends directly on our psychological and emotional condition. Our physical and mental health is our own responsibility — we take care of our body and know the fundamentals to maintaining good health. However, we do not always know how to keep our mental health in good shape, and part of this is being able to keep a clear head and stay positive. A psychologist can help us with this. All of us can overcome the challenges we face during our lifetime, however, it sometimes makes sense to take a step back and think about how to resolve problems using a different approach.”