21 Ukrainian penitentiary officers acquired the necessary knowledge and skills to pilot a new programme on managing professional burnout among penitentiary staff. The training was held from 10 to 13 September 2025 in Lviv, Ukraine, with participation of penitentiary officers from individual prisons as well as the Department of Execution of Criminal Sanctions (SDECS) of Ukraine, both headquarters and regional branches.

This first-of-its-kind programme in Ukraine equipped penitentiary staff with practical tools to prevent burnout, build resilience, and foster a culture of psychological safety. Participants developed an “anti-burnout menu” of daily practices and identified personal and team actions to prevent burnout.

The trained prison officers will now proceed to pilot the programme in selected prisons and interregional departments, including Kharkiv, Poltava, Kamenska colonies, and the Zaporizhzhia pre-trial centre. In the next phase, the programme will be rolled out across the entire prison system.

The training was organised under the Council of Europe project “Towards More Humane Conditions of Detention and Reduced Reoffending in Ukraine” (DECOPRIS), which is implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” (2023–2026).