The aim of Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) trainings in Ukraine was to spread best practices (PBS) as more humane alternatives to drugging and forced psychiatric treatment for those in institutions and those diagnosed with learning disabilities.

 

The aim of the project was to reduce the use of psychiatric treatment (particularly anti-psychotics), particularly for those in and from psychoneurological institutions.

 

The organizer, David Powell, had unique experience having worked as a volunteer in a psychoneurological orphanage in Russia (for children deemed to have ‘slow mental development’), visited psychoneurological institutions. He also experienced the bad side of the pharmaceutical industry when working for an international management consulting company, which he left and exposed / protested about.

 

SDVI stands for Samostoyatenost' Dlya Vypusknikov Internatov or Samostoyatenost' Dlya Vospitanikov Internatov (Russian: самостоятельность для выпускников интернатов or самостоятельность для воспитанников интернатов; Ukrainian: самостійність для випускників інтернатів or самостійність для вихованців інтернатів), which means self sufficiency and independence for individuals currently in or who have left [psychoneurological] institutions.

 

Psychoneurological institutions are a legacy of the Soviet Union and nearly 200 000 individuals live in such institutions across former Soviet Union countries, most of them dying quite young (e.g., 40 years old). The tragedy is that, while there are an extremely small number of alternative (predominantly charitable programs) whereby children from such orphanages are given places to live and live independent lives, the vast majority at the age of 18 are transferred to adult institutions. Such crowded institutions are no healthy places to live, they do not get much food and vegetables, are often locked inside the building (sometimes not even allowed into the courtyard) and are drugged with antipsychotics with a resultant short life expectancy.